![]() Rust on the metal will be apparent if there is a problem. Check every place that wood meets metal, as on the rear of the forend and at the head of the stock. To detect salt wood on 1966 to 1972 guns, first check for outward appearance of dark or discolored spots. It was then that the entire supply of walnut blanks was burned and replaced with traditional kiln dried wood. The problem continued to show up until 1972, but in smaller numbers. This caused the rust associated with “the salt wood problem”.Īccording to Schwing’s interviews with Browning’s Harm Williams and Val Browning, all the salt curing was done in the US and affected at least 90% of all Browning stocks from made from 1967 to 1969. The process did accomplish its purpose but the moisture that was drawn out of the blanks on top of the stacks ran down into the blanks below, resulting in a brine solution that soaked the lower wood blanks.” (Schwing, pp 246) The retained salt reacted with the gun metal with the finished stock was installed. The salt was supposed to leach out the moisture and dry the wood quickly. ![]() ![]() “In an area roughly the size of a football field, five-foot by five-foot by eight-foot stacks of stock blanks were covered with salt. Browning tested it and there were no problems, so Browning bought the process in 1965. This cured the walnut much faster than the kiln method. Morton Salt had developed a salt solution drying process successfully used in the furniture industry with good results. Rapid kiln drying also produced cracks in the California walnut. ![]() Demand for Browning guns was at an all time high and the usual kiln drying process for walnut was too slow to produce what was needed. A California contractor had a large inventory of good walnut taken from clearing power line right of ways. According to Schwing, in the mid ’60s Browning needed a better supply of high grade walnut for it’s guns. The best discussion of the Browning salt wood issue is in Ned Schwing’s “Browning Superposed” book (Krause Press, 1996). I have not been able to find any reference to it in the shotgun literature. Please discuss the Browning Superposed salt problem and how to detect this defect. ![]()
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