can winchester salt treated wood be cured?
i have a set of aaa select crotch wood for my winchester super x model one that i bought from a very large and very respected wood company in MO.. to my surprise, after paying well over 500.00 for it all, and 8 years later, and after looking at my gun for the first time jammed back in the safe in 8 years, the wood has black ooz lines on all contact points where wood touched metal. it rusted my metal and flaked off the poly coat finish right off he wood! [:0] thinking maybe it was just oil, i took everything apart and found that the butt screws were rusted and rotting inside the holes to point where the screws were ruined too. no, i recognize this. its salt wood. so, my question is, CAN SALT WOOD BE SAVED? is there a way to strip it and suck salt out of wood? i mean this is absolute aaa select crotch wood WELL worth saving if possible. let me know! thanks in advance.[?]
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Bobski, I'm no expert but my dad is a carpenter with 40 years of experiance. Him and his dad and two brothers co-owned a lumberyard for 20 years. I'll ask him when he gets home this afternoon. Tough luck, something like that to happen to a gun and stock like that. 0 -
Wow, that's a bad one. I'd try and lean on the source for a remedy.
I would assume the salt is water soluable and might be leached out in warm or hot water.0 -
Hello Bob! Got your email!! Well there are some assumtions here I have to make: One being that it's WALNUT! Just because you bought it from someone in MO, doesn't mean it's from MO. IE; Turkish Walnut
A few things about wood people who don't know should, it's a hard sponge! It will soak up any type of moisture. If you live in an area that has 90% humidity, guess, what that wood is drinking! (Most shotgun stocks aren't 100% coated). One of the first things I do to a wood stock, is remove it from the receiver, remove the butt plate and put a light coat of oil on each end, it helps seal it and protect it. Especially on my "Duck" guns which I know will get wet.
YES the wood can be saved. I don't know what type of finish is currently on it, such as oil, varnish, laquer, a resin base, Acrylic? It will have to be stripped. Using the appropriate stripper. Then I would get some "whiting" from the hardware store. (made to draw out any oil and minerals in the wood). Let it dry real slow in a room that's 65-80 degrees, with low humidity!! If it dries to quick it will crack. Once the wood has dried, any wood prep needs to take place. If there are areas of raised grain, I recommend 220 grit sand paper. Use great care where it meets the receiver. I would use an oil type finish, about 6 coats, rubbing each coat out. Then recut the checkering.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by "salt wood" different lingo in different parts of the country! I know the walnut tree didn't grow in an area with a high concentration of salt in the soil, such as "on the beach"! LOL I do know that once wood is cut, it has to be kept moist, until it's cut into blanks, then it's dried slowly to 8-12% moisture content. It's possible that the holding pool and some chemicals to control algea growth and the wood now has those, but like I said the "whiting" should be able to draw most of that out. During the refinish exercise make sure the receiver end has a few coats of what ever stock finish you use to help seal it.
I don't know who made the stocks for you, but you might want to call them, they may refinish at no cost, or at least a reduced price. Hope this helps you Bob! Regards Dave0 -
it was NOS winchester walnut stock and forearm. had white spacers so it was close to end of run wood 87,000 series guns. it was wrapped still in winchester box and label. it was the high gloss polycoated wood. again, end of run finish. early super x's were hand rubbed up to about 40,000 series. thanks for the insight. sounds like a lot of hard work. salt wood is termed from the browning salt treated wood recall for guns back in the 60's. something about the curing process left salt in the wood. i suspected it was the same problem. gun was treated properly for long storage and the tricks to the trade were applied and it still did the black ooz and rusted metal. ive seen this happen to a lot of NIB super x's from the 80,000 series. it must have been a bad batch run or something. will all this refinshing require recutting checking? 0 -
Bob as far as recutting the checkering, you can mask most of it. sort of depends on how sloppy one gets when applying the finish. Chasing the checkering is easy compared to cutting it, unless it's pressed?. regards Dave! PS: You should know to stay with "pre-64s!!! 0 -
heheehe. super x's are the only guns made after 64 that are built to pre 64 specs. you should pick one up some day and look at it closely![;)] 0 -
I wouldn't waste the time trying to save the wood, the salt residue is impregnated deep into the wood. Here's a little more information regarding salt wood...
Salt wood resulted from a process used on Brownings 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 Browning 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, Winchester, 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 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 finshing.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 Brownings 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
(From "Browning Sporting Arms of Distincction" by Matt Eastman)
Browning procrastinated in signing the wood contract it Europe because there was a price spike. BA thought it was a ploy and put off the purchase knowing there was plenty of cheap California wood available if needed. By the time the European wood deal fell through the California wood was gone.
The only figured wood available was planks bought in California but sent to South America for furniture. BA was trapped and had to take it. *That's* where the salt curing was being done but BA missed it being a problem.
BA *tried* to sell some to TRW for M-14 stocks but Claro walnut failed the physical test and was never used. Bishop, Fajen, the so-called Warsaw (MO) pact, bought some and sold it in semi-inlets.
BA nearly went broke from the fiasco. A serious tax problem about the same time almost put them under and as a result they lost the FN connection and were forced to Japan and Portugal for guns and parts.
1968 was the "1964" of Browning Arms. That's why round knob, long-tang, (RKLT) Brownings are more desirable.
If a Browning has French walnut stocks it can't be salt wood. All Claro, especially the higher grades, is suspect.0 -
A FRIEND OF MINE HAD THIS PROBLEM ON A BROW. 'T' BOLT, HE HEAVILY SHELLACED THE CONTACT POINTS AND THIS SEEMED TO WORK WELL. I'D USE 'GLASS BEDDING' ON THE CONRACT POINTS AND THEN REFINISH THE STOCK. 0
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