doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Katrina wood?

I'm finishing up a couple of katrina guns, a sharps and a spencer and have pretty much finished them up except the wood on the spencer. It picked some, but not alot of brackish water. I'm leaning towards the wonko brew....any other thoughts? So far no abrasives have been used in the clean up and I'm very happy with the results. I'm thinking the old acetone soak, then a soak in linseed oil. Any input appreciated.
Steve

Wonko will yell at you, or maybe, point and laugh, if you use linseed oil...but, if that was what was original, maybe that is what you want.
Best,
Ted

SKB; I won't claim to be an expert on this sort of thing, but it would seem to me you need to remove the salt (brackish water is salty I would guess). About the only thing that will disolve the salt is water, so therefore I would soak the stock in a about a 50/50 acetone/methanol and water solution for awhile (a day) and repeat a couple of times with a fresh mixture, this should dissolve & remove the salt. Then remove the water from the stock with acetone ( acetone loves water so you should see it turn "milky" when it befores saturated) or just dry it out naturally. You'll likely have to de-fuzz the stock before refinishing as the water will raise the grain somewhat. For your on curiousity you can evaporate the "soaks" to see how much junk you did remove. I would think this method would work on the so called "salt cured" stocks should one have the need. --- John Can.

I am working two and the only cure for the ones I have is a fresh start.
bill

Bill; Yes, sometimes as in all things starting over is the only answer and for someone to make any sort of evaluation on salvaging something from the ravages of time etc. is a guess at best. I would like to see the situation you are faced with in person but an alternative would be some pics, if possible (Email if you wish). I've seen some pretty hopeless cases "resurected" just to keep the "originality". --- John Can.

This one is a long ways from hopeless....The stocks were oil soaked over the years and the guns didnt take on that much water at all. They were both hanging on walls. The sharps picked up no water on the stock and the spencer a very small amount.
Steve

John
The guy that had these wrapped them in saran wrap wet and held them for a year that way. Wood is black, punk , split. I am thinking strongly of parting out the Fox Sterlingworth 20, the 410 has responded to rust removal and the bores are OK so I use it for fill in work.
bill

Steve,
I have just finished restoring the wood finish on a piece of fine Turkish walnut left underwater in Katrina for over a week. It took most of a year (!) of alternating soaks in acetone and powdered lime. Then I rebuilt the original finish of Tru-Oil. The process removed most (but not all) of the salt/oil stains from the wood without damaging the basic wood structure.

Good on all you guys for saving these guns. I wondered about how many nice collections and pieces were underwater. If you don't mind me asking- how are you coming across these guns? Auction sites, private sales etc?

These are restorations for the owner. The guns got off very easy, both hanging on the wall and neither under water completely. They had lots of original patina to so blending it all out was the trick. I learned a bunch about rust on these two guns, for example, a razor blade used carefully works excellent to remove rust. A neat project for sure.
Steve

My client sent me several guns which had been submerged for over a week in the overflow from the levee hence the long soak to remove salt/chemical intrusion into the wood. That stuff even dissolved some aluminum parts! Most chrome moly steel was pitted. Interestingly the rust blue on a custom I had built the year before fared pretty well except where a cloth cover touched the steel. After replacing the barrel (due to slight pitting in the bore), the rest of the rifle was salvaged and will be back hunting this fall.

For what it is worth.
I do not think that water, plain water, will harm the wood.
The Portsmouth Navy Shipyard has quite a few huge timbers, submerged in a lake, to be used as needed to restore any wood on the USS Constitution.Most of these timbers are white pine and were cut in the 19th century. They are as sound as when cut.
It seems, to me, that being under water would not have greatly harmed the wood on any gun. Metal is another thing.
I would think that any salt could be easily "washed" out with soaking in fresh water. The residual oils in the walnut should have protected the wood for a long time.
This is NOT the same scenario as the wood that was used on the Browning guns.
Best,
John

I use bronze wool and motor oil, rub gently. Softer and less damaging than any sort of steel, wool or razor blades. Sometimes, with luck, the surface rust comes off and the blue is still Ok underneath.

I used steel wool, bronze brushes and even boiled the rust to soften it, all helped. The razor blade was just the ticket for the really hard stuff. I used rust blue to blend it all out. I've showed them to several people, no one thinks they are anything other than old guns. They came out very nice.
Steve