salt wood on winchester?
saw an auction for a winchester boy scout commemorative 9422 that said the gun had salt wood damage. did these have salt wood on them?
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Probably they meant the wood had been damaged by salt (water)?
Just a guess...0 -
salt treated (drying process) wood from central america ruined a many guns metal where wood contacted it. salt guns are notorious and avoided by collectors. 0 -
bobski is correct. To get around a shortage of properly dried wood for gun stocks, or to reduce cost a notch without regard to the impact on quality, several manufacturers including Winchester resorted to the salt drying technique. Raw wood was packed in salt which absorbed moisture from the wood hastening its drying. Naturally, some salt migrated into the wood resulting in metal corrosion. 0 -
i wasn't aware that winchester used the "salt wood". i wouldn't have thought they used it on their commemorative guns. Got any idea what guns (dates) they used it on? 0 -
Once again, I will disagree with glabray. Browning used salt cured walnut, but Winchester did not. 0 -
thanks Bert. i didn't think they did either. i was hoping you would weigh in on this. 0 -
gotcha bert.....
"Salt wood resulted from a process used to speed up the curing time of wood...the salt would draw out the moisture and speed up the drying process, unfortunately the salt residue remained in the wood grain and caused metal corrosion where the metal and wood made contact. This was not a manufacturing problem, but a supplier problem.
About 1965, a large wood supplier sent wood not only to Browning for FN's use but also to: Bishop, Fajen, [:D]WINCHESTER[:D], Ruger and to the US Military for M-14 stocks. This company was drying their walnut using granulated salt, by covering the wood with salt and placing it in quonset huts. The only figured wood available was planks bought in California but sent to South America for furniture. That's where the salt curing was being done. When the California wood supply disappeared, the only figured wood available was from South America.
The wood dried so quickly that the workers said they could actually see a steady drip of moisture coming from the wood. The wood was already cut into the appropriate size planks and no one thought that any salt residue would remain on or in the wood after final shaping, sanding, and finishing. The US Government stopped using walnut for the M-14 rifles and went to other types of wood because properly cured wood was so scarce at the time.
In Browning's case, the problem first showed up starting in 1966 and ends on their guns about 1973. Superposes and T-Bolts made between 1967-1973 should be looked at; Safari, Medallion or Olympian made between 1967-1976; and any A5's 2,000,000 edition Commemoratives should be looked at.
Inspect any place the metal touches the wood. Take out the butt plate screws and look them over carefully. If you find no rust, the gun is probably OK. Sometimes you can test the wood with silver nitrate. Place a drop or two on a hidden spot on the wood, if it bubbles you have a problem."0 -
I learned about "salt wood" the hard way. [B)]..I bought a T- Bolt and took off the stock,,,,wow, talk about a surprise, what an ugly scene..nambu 0 -
my WINCHESTER super-x model ones did the same thing. 0 -
Hello Bob,
What is your source of information?
If Winchester used "salt-wood", it apparently was only used on their shotguns, as none of the rifle series has ever been found with it. Admittedly, I know very little about Winchester's shotguns after the Model 12.
If you are correct, I need to post an apology[:I].0
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