Browning Salt Wood in a 1965 High Power rifle??

[chill45100]

Cleaned out a few pieces from the safe today and pulled out the Browning High Power .30-06. With some trepidation the sling studs were pulled and had no corrosion. On to the action screws and the barreled action came right out. No rust or corrosion there either. A careful inspection of the stock cross bolt/recoil lug was also negative for rust. SO, would it be safe to believe this particular wood is not salt wood?
Hopefully the crazed urathane finish can be removed this winter and an oil finish applied. The bluing is smooth and glossy, white metal still white and the gold inlay still bright. It looks like I oiled the bore well those decades ago as it cleaned up nice and shiny. Hopefully my grandson will get to hunt with Great Grandps's rifle too.

Does anyone know of an accurate test for salt wood? And a good way to remove the old finish?
thanks Chill45100

[RED333]

Found a test and a good read.
http://www.trapshooters.com/threads/browning-saltwood-explained.77406/

[waksupi]

Go to Sherwin Williams, and get some aircraft and boat stripper. Takes care of Weatherby finish, so should be able to tackle anything else.

[gandydancer]

Believe me if you had salt wood you would know it in very short order.

[Wayne Smith]

Believe me if you had salt wood you would know it in very short order.

So yes,your assumption is correct!

[flounderman]

I learned the hard way about the salt treated wood. Bought a browning stock at a gun show. Stock looked like it had be soaked in water, no finish. I finished it and put it on a rifle and it started rusting immediately. Then I found out Browning had tried salt treating. I later was given a madrone stock blank, with the warning it was a salt treat. I don't know how many times I tried to make this stock quit bleeding. I full length glassed it inside and layered the poly urethane on the outside. I gave up and it sits in a corner. The sling swivel studs have salt coming out around them and they are rusted. If your stock was salt treated, you wouldn't have to ask. I don't know who the idiot was that came up with the idea but it was a disaster. I wonder if they used regular salt to treat the wood, because salt treated lumber doesn't rust metal like this stuff does. Years ago there was a man, Vernon Herr from Wisconsin was using ethylene glycol to stabilize his stocks. Chase Creek Stabilized Stocks, I believe it was. It was 50 years ago and I'm maybe the only one left alive that remembers it, so it never revolutionized gun stock making.

[Stephen Cohen]

Probably a silly question but what is salt treatment, in this country it used to mean it was dropped in the out house but I'm sure this is not what you meant.

[tygar]

Cleaned out a few pieces from the safe today and pulled out the Browning High Power .30-06. With some trepidation the sling studs were pulled and had no corrosion. On to the action screws and the barreled action came right out. No rust or corrosion there either. A careful inspection of the stock cross bolt/recoil lug was also negative for rust. SO, would it be safe to believe this particular wood is not salt wood?
Hopefully the crazed urathane finish can be removed this winter and an oil finish applied. The bluing is smooth and glossy, white metal still white and the gold inlay still bright. It looks like I oiled the bore well those decades ago as it cleaned up nice and shiny. Hopefully my grandson will get to hunt with Great Grandps's rifle too.

Does anyone know of an accurate test for salt wood? And a good way to remove the old finish?
thanks Chill45100

You will NOT find salt wood on any Browning prior to 1967 & not all of them. Starting in 68 it was severe.

Silver nitrate shows the salt. Dab a little in the brl channel & it will change if its salt.

Any good furniture stripper usually works.

[flounderman]

They have been salt treating lumber for years to keep it from rotting. One lumberyard worker asked me if I had got a hazmat sheet with it. Said it was treated with arsenic. The wood is treated green and will cup warp and curl even if it is screwed down. The stuff they used in the gunstocks seems to have real salt in it. The idea was to keep the wood from absorbing moisture, maybe. The Madrone stock I have is supposed to take up water like a sponge. Years ago, one of the gun magazines had a list of the gunstock woods, with the hardness, weight, water absorbing capacity and probably some more characteristics. Madrone was the worst for soaking up water so I figure that is why they treated it. The idea is tied for first on the list of the worst firearm inventions, along with the Polish dueling pistol.

[pietro]

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After more than 40 years, while residual evidence of previous rusting might be found, I'd seriously doubt that any active rusting will happen.


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[waksupi]

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After more than 40 years, while residual evidence of previous rusting might be found, I'd seriously doubt that any active rusting will happen.


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Unless something has been done to kill the rust, it is not dead, nor will it ever rest.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Morton Salt was the outfit that talked Browning into using it. Luckily John Browning was already dead or he would have dropped from a heart attack. It must have been an easy sell as no one with any knowledge of metal and salt would believe that it would work.

I only heard about this a few years ago and I argued with the guy who told me about it that no one at Browning would be so stupid as to think it wouldn't bleed out. Then I went home and Googled it and was absolutely Flabbergasted to find out it was true!

I saw a Medallion Grade .300 H&H that was infected and it like to broke my heart.

Randy

[Multigunner]

What I've read on the subject indicated that Browning had not had a hand in salt drying this wood. They had bought lumber salvaged from thousands of California walnut trees that had been felled to clear a path for power lines or some similar public works project.
The company that had bpught the wood from the state had salt cured the wood intending it for use in manufacturing furniture and wall paneling and the like.
The Browning purchasing agent had not inquired deeply enough into why all this wood came on the market so cheaply.