The wood for making a 98K rifle costs 20,000 yuan per cubic meter, but the AK47 is priced like this?

Since it is prohibited for ordinary people to own guns in our country, most people are actually not familiar with firearms.

Take the 98K rifle that everyone is familiar with in games for example. Except for the key parts which are made of metal, the entire structure of the gun body is made of wood. 

The wood used in the 98K rifle is European walnut. This type of wood has a moderate hardness, excellent mechanical properties, and is also easy to carve. Therefore, it is also very suitable for use as a material for firearms. 

Not to mention that the price of walnut wood is around 20,000 yuan per cubic meter, which is less than one-third of the price of metal. This also explains why the 98K rifle uses wood. In fact, apart from the 98K rifle using a large amount of wood, there are many other guns in the world that also use wood. For example, the AK47 assault rifle, one of the world's top ten assault rifles, has a wooden body. 

However, unlike the 98K rifle which uses relatively expensive walnut wood, the AK47 assault rifle uses birch wood. Birch wood is very common in Russia and can be found almost everywhere. In terms of flexibility and durability, birch wood is not much inferior to walnut wood. Moreover, the price of birch wood is much cheaper, about half that of walnut wood. This is actually one of the reasons why the 98K rifle is just a famous gun, while the AK47 assault rifle is the world's gun king, which is due to its high cost performance.

Of course, among the many firearms in our country, there are also those that use wood, such as the Type 56 automatic rifle, which is in the same lineage as the AK47 assault rifle. In terms of performance and appearance, the Type 56 automatic rifle is quite similar to the AK47 assault rifle. 

However, the 56 semi-automatic rifle does not use birch or walnut wood, but rather the wood of the Juglans mandshurica, one of the three most valuable tree species in Northeast China. This wood has excellent resistance to moisture and corrosion, making it suitable for use in firearms. Moreover, the price of Juglans mandshurica wood is relatively low. In fact, this is one of the reasons why China was able to produce millions of 56 semi-automatic rifles at the same time back then.