Salt Wood Problem
The “Salt Wood” problem I wrote an article about some 27 years ago while a Director of the Browning Collectors Association. While my membership number is 002 and a many times past director the article lies buried I suppose somewhere deep in the ground down a lonely road in Utah. To mention the problem out loud was shall we say…”not Browning” as it were. Liabilities issues for sure.
Well I received today an article in our association newsletter written by my old friend Art Isaacson. I speak of it (salt wood) little today and will not amend or add to his article. His article in my view is not about Browning which is one of the finest gunmakers today but rather a form of drying that was used and how it affected the Trade at large. That would be furniture makers, boats, cabinets and exotic boxes which would include firearm stocks as well. Be informed and read the article, join the Browning Collectors Association, and I will be back with comment.
Finishing a gunstock for John Wilkes Gun & Rifle Makers, London by Karl Lippard of Brazier.
Browning Collectors AssociationMarch-April 2006
NEWSLETTER
Volume XXVII, Number 5
www.browningcollectors. com
By Art Isaacson
Art is a Charter/life Member of the BCA and has been a member of the Board of Directors since 1980. He is a twice past employee of Browning at its repair facility in Arnold, Missouri, where he worked as a gunsmith and a supervisor. Art has professionally restored Browning firearms, as well as other quality arms, for 35 years. He owns Art’s Gun Shop in Hillsboro, Missouri. After a four year stint in the U.S. Navy, I decided to enroll in a gunsmithing school in Colorado so I could expand on my machinist back-ground. At the end of a two-year program the Browning Company sent a representative to interview for some gunsmithing positions that had opened with the company. After interviewing with Mr. Stengel, I was invited to come I to St. Louis and become one of the gunsmiths for Browning. In 1971, I packed all of my humble belongings in a U-Haul trailer and headed for St. Louis and thus began an exciting career with Browning that would last over 30 years.
The very first day of my training in the gunshop introduced me to something that I had never heard of. It was referred to as the salt wood situation. As the new kid on the block, I was enlightened in a rapid manner. Seems that I would be one of the men who would be repairing some firearms that had a strange rusting condition. It was generally where the wood and metal were mated together. Some guns had a few rust spots in various locations while others had a very severe case of rusting that left very deep pitting in the metal. My assignment was to work on the Safari rifles and one of the latest .22 rifles to be added into the Browning line called the T-Bolt. I was shown many other guns with the same problem. The Superposed shotguns had been fit with this “bad wood” and many of them were in serious need of help. I was soon being instructed about a bad situation at Browning. Seems the company had bought some wood and sent it to Belgium to be made into gunstocks and it had been cured by a new process that was referred to as salt curing. The wood had been purchased mainly from a California company but some of it came out of Missouri. Yes, in the early 70’s, Browning was locked into a serious situation in which they recognized that they were in a very costly and long lasting situation in which they were obligated to repair thousands of Browning guns that had been fit with salt wood. How could something like this happen we ask? Why hadn’t anyone considered this potential problem? Well, as I dove into my first salt gun repair, the situation was explained to me. Browning was enjoying great sales in the 60’s and they were supplying wood to the FN plant in Belgium as we had a ready supply of it here in the states. The problem was they could not supply enough to meet the demand. The tried and proven method of curing wood was with kiln drying. It removed the right amount of moisture which seasoned the wood and made it useful as a gun stock. The wood was put in large kilns and would remain there for several months to get the moisture content to the desired level. The bottom line was that it worked well, but it just took too long and thus the gun manufacturing process was being held up while waiting for the wood to dry. A new process was being introduced in the country by which wood could have salt packed around it and thus the moisture would quickly be removed and the wood was ready to be sent to Belgium. As old Browning retiree recently informed me that one of his jobs was to go out into the field and locate cured gunstock blanks. He visited with a supplier in California and Missouri and he was taken on a tour of these facilities. He told me how surprised he was to see pallets of wood blanks stacked high, and amazingly enough they had salt packed between each layer of blanks. Water was running from the blanks as moisture was being pulled from the wood. The suppliers informed him that this greatly accelerated the curing process and they could supply as many of these blanks as was need. It seemed harmless enough. Deals were made and soon many blanks of wood were on the way to the plant at FN. Production increased and everyone was happy but trouble was around the corner. This salt curing process began in 1966 and continued until around 1971. In those few short years thousands of Browning’s were fit with salt cured wood. Now, I didn’t say they all were, but a good many were. It wasn’t too long after the salt wood installation process began, when a few guns started appearing in the repair shop and then it became a full-fledged epidemic as they began to pour into the St. Louis repair facility. When I arrived in 1971, there was no shortage of work in the gun shop. I guess I should have been grateful for this situation as it gave me and some other men a good job, but those poor souls who owned these guns had my sympathy. Damaged guns were always repaired at no charge, but the owners were without a gun for a long period of time. Browning was really in a financial pinch over the situation and it would dog them for years to come and still does to this day. Many guns would have to be replaced as they were just too far gone for repair. Replacing Olympians, Medallions, Midas, Diana grades, and everything in between was a terribly costly situation for Browning. Thousands of man hours were spent on the repair of salt guns.
When I arrived in the St. Louis repair facility, we were trying to seal the inletting of the gunstocks with a special sealer. The metal was then refinished and the gun was returned to its owner. This sealing process was just a temporary fix, which was buying a little time and it was soon discovered that the only real fix was to replace the wood. Now, over the past 35 years that I have been in the gunsmithing trade, I have heard of a good many ways to seal salt stocks. I’ve been told of glass bedding processes and boiling the wood in various chemicals and painting special sealers into the inletting, but let me assure you that nothing to this date has been found to work. The only cure is to replace the salt wood with clean wood that has been properly dried in a kiln. Yes, we did buy some time by sealing the wood, but it was just a band aid and the guns would be returning soon for new wood. They just kept coming back like annoying in-Iaws.
So, how do you spot a salt cured gun? I can go to just about any gun show and always find a couple of them. I knew a man in the gunstock business who told me he could taste the salt in a stock blank. He just used the old tongue method, but I think the best way is to use the old eye ball. If you know what to look for, they are easy to spot. On rifles, I always look at the reinforcement screws in the side of the stock or around the swivel studs. On Superposed shotguns, I always check around the forearm screw escutcheons or around the forearm bracket. One of my favorite salt tests involves removing the butt plate screws and looking for rust on them. Many times you simply won’t be able to remove the screws as salt locks them into place. Now on the Superposed guns, the stock and forearm could be salt cured, or just one piece or the other could be bad. I always worry with a hot salt forearm on these guns as I have seen some pitting so bad on the barrels that they had to be replaced. A salty stock is bad, but a receiver can always be saved. Barrels are expensive and nearly impossible to find. If you really want to check for salt, the best method is to use a silver nitrate mixture diluted to about 1 %. Check with me as I can get you a small bottle at a low cost.
So now if you have been unfortunate enough to get stuck with a salt gun, what are you going to do? Many of these guns look good when purchased, and don’t display any sign of salt, but then one day you pull it out of the gun rack and you notice a rust spot where it shouldn’t be. Now, I know a lot of you folks intentionally purchase salt guns thinking you can fix it up and come out ahead of the game. Let me assure you, the repairs are always costly and can often exceed a recoverable amount. You see, most salt guns are obsolete and you can’t just call the Browning parts department and buy a new one. They always have to be made up special. In our shop, we manufacture new stocks to be an exact copy of an original stock, but you are purchasing a custom made stock which gets the cost up. I guess my advise to you is “Buy it right”. I see a good many overpriced salt guns wherever I go, but you can’t put much into a gun that needs a wood replacement and metal refinish. Don’t spend much on them at purchase time, because you will be spending a lot with me later. Pass up those over-priced guns.
I want to make one point concerning Browning’s salt gun policy. The policy seems to change, but I have been told that the recent policy is to repair only Superposed shotguns if you are the original owner. You must be able to prove that you purchased the gun new and you are still the original owner. Don’t try to pull any tricks, as they do have good records in Utah, and they know who purchased the gun new. Superposed were the only gun to have a lifetime guarantee- tee. Rifles never had this warranty, so your salt T-Bolt won’t be covered. My advice is to call Browning and ask. If you can get the gun serviced at no charge to you, I think that is wonderful. Again, I can assure you that they don’t service salt rifles.
So let’s talk about the restoration process on a typical salt gun. In my shop the first thing we do is remove the salt cured stock and put in on the woodpile next to the fireplace. These stocks really get a fire going in the fireplace and if you leave the recoil pad on the stock, it smokes a little, but it gets the fire going even better. This is the only appropriate use for a salt gunstock. In my shop, I don’t return them after replacing with new wood as they just end up in a gun show or installed on some poor saps gun. After the wood is removed and discarded, we dismantle the gun and sand blast the rust away from the metal. This exposes the amount of pitting we will be dealing with. The pits have to go and we can either polish them away if not very deep, or in some cases we heli-arc weld the pitting. The metal is annealed after welding and then the machining process begins to remove the weld. The metal is reshaped to bring it back to its original shape and then it is ready to have the engraving touched up if necessary. We like to replace the wood before we re-blue the metal. It just makes it easier for us. After the new wood is fit to the gun, we refinish the metal while the wood is being refinished. What’s it going to cost you to repair your salt gun? A few months ago, we took in a salt Pigeon grade Super- posed and both the stock and the forearm were really hot. Significant metal damage was present, so lots of work was required to restore it. Replacing the wood and restoring the metal got the tab up to around $3000.00. Now you guys know that a 12 gauge Pigeon grade is not worth much more that this. As I say, you have to buy them right. An average restoration job on a Safari is around $800.00. Don’t spend much on these guns when you contemplate purchasing a salt gun. Restoration work isn’t going to be cheap.
Recently I had a man send me a real nice 28 gauge Model 12 Winchester. He had some rusting problems where wood and metal joined together. He thought he simply needed a re-blue, but what do you think the real problem was? You guessed it, didn’t you? Seems that Browning wasn’t the only company to get stuck with salt cured wood. I have seen a good many Weatherby rifles with salt wood and the old Fajen and Bishop gunstock companies purchased a lot of it. The poor soul with the Winchester, had some very pretty wood installed on his gun years ago. It was either Fajen or Bishop, who did the work. I’ve seen guns of all descriptions fit with custom salt wood. Seems like the stuff is everywhere and won’t be going away anytime soon. I get salt guns into our shop weekly. One would think that eventually they would run out, but it won’t be in my lifetime.
One more piece of advice I want to give you concerns the refinishing of a known salt piece of wood. We have discovered that during the stripping and rinsing process used during the refinish process does something to activate salt. Even a harmless looking salt stock that doesn’t seem to have much of a salt content can turn into a nightmare after refinishing. I don’t know what the refinishing process does, but salt wood can go wild after it has been refinished. We will never knowingly refinish a salt stock, as you won’t like the results. It doesn’t take long for it to blossom into a full fledged beast. I want to stay your friend.
Now in closing, I have one more round of bad news for you when you go out to add some nice Browning’s to your collection. We talked about the salt era as being between early 1966 and late 1970. However, I have seen 3 or 4 guns come in last year that was manufactured in the 80’s and sure enough, they had salt wood. The wood seems to be on higher grade Browning’s and I have seen it on BAR rifles and .22 autos. I’ve also seen a few graded BT-99 shotguns with the bad stuff on them. Don’t ask me where the wood came from, as I don’t know. Apparently, some high grade salt wood was stored away in some remote corner and somehow got used on some 80’s model guns. Be on the look-out for these guns as they are lurking out there. Just be looking for the telltale signs of rust around the wood line. Best of luck to you on your Browning collection acquisitions and hopefully, you are a little more educated while shopping for your favorite guns. Beware, as they are lurking out there just hoping you will take one home with you.
End of article.
Readers, log-on to the BCA website shown at the beginning of this fine article by Art. Join an association of Browning enthusiasts and learn more about the guns that changed the world we live in today. There is a lot more to collecting Browning’s and here, in Art’s article, you may have saved many thousands of dollars. So please join at the next opportunity and be informed……
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Okay, back to the business of wood and the perils of selecting wood for your gun, furniture or other wood project. What it brings us to is the MMC6™ process.
MMC6™ is a Joseph Brazier process for stabilizing wood. That means it replaces the moisture discussed above with a resin. The end result is wood that will not crack, shrink, generally warp, AND, can be cut with CNC machine to difficult shapes.
Well, so what? “I can have wood made if it goes bad?” Really? One of the largest wood projects in the history of gun making cannot cope with the hundreds of thousands of guns, and future guns, that carry this interior virus. The Browning rifles you have you may be out of luck on altogether. So WHO is going to produce a replica that will fit your Winchester, Weatherby, or the dash of your boat that just fell off? Joseph Brazier.
In a few weeks, Joseph Brazier will be spinning (or selling) its wood products into a new corporation to handle the stabilization and manufacture of exotic woods. As soon as a few partners are located the new company will spool up to handle the Browning issue which has long been my concern, provide firearm wood for Karl Lippard Model guns of course and other makers, then branch out to the treatment of furniture to wooden ships (in or out of the water) preserving them for future generations to see and appreciate.
A fine stocked John Wilkes gun by Chuck Grace for Gary Ballen
“First up is first served”.
If you have an affected product of salt and in need of replacement send us an email. Your problem will be addressed in the order of inquiry. (See News article “Impossible Wood & Barrels” for replacement details) For your barrel needs, Joseph Brazier as you are aware has applied for Patent on their Solid barrel products to handle the issues created by salt and other maladies of time and wear.
So don’t despair. We can help. It will take a little time to tool up and we are working on those expenditures today. Nothing made by man cannot be made better by Joseph Brazier. Read about it here, “In the News”.
Joseph Braizer Ltd.
Karl C. Lippard