salt wood

carby

August 06, 2009 18:42

I'm going to look at a Browning Belgium made Safari Grade rifle. In looking at auctions here they are talking about salt wood. What is salt wood and what serial number range do you need to be looking for it?

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  carby

  August 06, 2009 18:42

  what is salt wood and what to do about it

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  XXCross

  August 06, 2009 18:48

  It's wood that had the drying process excellerated by the use of salt. Through it away, it will corrode any iron parts it comes in contact with and it will attract moisture. Burns pretty in the fireplace.

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  Bert H.

  August 06, 2009 18:50

  "Salt wood" is south american walnut that was still too green to use, so they packed it in salt to speed up the drying process. When it was cut into stock blanks, it was mistakenly believed that removing the outer layer of wood during the stock shaping and finishing would remove all of the salt. In reality, the salt penetrated much further into the wood grain than thought. As well all know, salt and steel do not play well together.
  
  In answer to your question concerning "what to do about it?", the answer is simple... remove the stocks and throw them in your fireplace. They will burn with a pretty blue-green flame.

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  Spring Creek

  August 06, 2009 19:10

  OR, you can give them at least 6 coats of Tru-Oil.
  Hand rubbed perfectly between coats; DO NOT hurry the process,
  and let dry perfectly before using steel wool of no courser than "OOOO".
  Now,........................as Bert said, throw them in the fire
  place. They will burn with the pretty blue-green flame and a
  little quicker due to the Tru-Oil.
  This does nothing other than to "Perfect" your application of
  Tru-Oil or similar and will be worth it when you do the real thing
  on a useable stock.

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  minitruck83

  August 07, 2009 00:01

  Not only will those flames be pretty... but the salt will help prevent soot buildup in the chimney, [;)]
  
  
  
  
  
  Allen

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  cwi555

  August 07, 2009 06:27

  quote:Originally posted by Bert H.
  "Salt wood" is south american walnut that was still too green to use, so they packed it in salt to speed up the drying process. When it was cut into stock blanks, it was mistakenly believed that removing the outer layer of wood during the stock shaping and finishing would remove all of the salt. In reality, the salt penetrated much further into the wood grain than thought. As well all know, salt and steel do not play well together.
  
  In answer to your question concerning "what to do about it?", the answer is simple... remove the stocks and throw them in your fireplace. They will burn with a pretty blue-green flame.
  
  
  Thanks for that info, it explains something I did not understand at the time. I had one of those stocks and it ate up my rifle. I recognized the micro-structure and understood the corrosion process but didn't understand where the salts had come from as the rifle had never seen the light of day in a salt water environment. I figured out the stock was the problem, now I know why.
  
  I took that stock out again and burned a chunk of it. Blue green flame indeed.

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