Salt Impregnated Wood

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les-smith

les-smith

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I have a relative that is going to send me some wood that has been submerged in salt water for some 40 years. What issues do you think there may be concerning corrosiveness of the salt on the kit parts?
 
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I can't answer to that, but I will say.... IF there is salt in it... BE CAREFULL if you use CA as a finish! It speeds up that chemical reaction.
 
That's an interesting questions, I've never even thought about that. Then again, I don't know if I've seen anyone make pens from wood submerged in salt water before. I've seen the Irish Bog Oak and ancient Kauri, but those I don't believe are from salt water. But maybe they are, I don't have a friggin' clue! I would say, make one and find out!!
 
There is an issue with wood, the salt soaks into the wood and will crystallize once dry. Most of the non metallic artifact I find while scuba diving in saltwater are soaked in fresh water for a long time to leach out the salt. The best place is in the water tank, no the bowl, of a toilet, this changes the water regularly. I have some wooden deadeyes from the 1700's I soaked for 1 year and then soaked in walnut oil and they look great, my buddy did not soak his and they are powdery and flaking apart. As with most wood the type of wood and the time in water have a lot to do with the how much salt penetrates the wood. This is also true with other items, including glass, leather and fabrics, you can do a search on dive artifact restoration for more information.
 
Crayman said:
There is an issue with wood, the salt soaks into the wood and will crystallize once dry. Most of the non metallic artifact I find while scuba diving in saltwater are soaked in fresh water for a long time to leach out the salt. The best place is in the water tank, no the bowl, of a toilet, this changes the water regularly. I have some wooden deadeyes from the 1700's I soaked for 1 year and then soaked in walnut oil and they look great, my buddy did not soak his and they are powdery and flaking apart. As with most wood the type of wood and the time in water have a lot to do with the how much salt penetrates the wood. This is also true with other items, including glass, leather and fabrics, you can do a search on dive artifact restoration for more information.
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Take the blank out before you flush!!!
:eek::eek::eek:
 
Thanks for the replies. It crossed my mind that the salt might react with the platings on the pen. I'm thinking now that the only unfinished wood that would be exposed to the plating might be the end of the turned blank. The pen would have CA on the outside, brass on the inside, nothing on the ends. So I'll just make sure the ends get a layer or two of CA. That would at least slow any type of reaction down.
 
Salt will cause you problems. Browning Gun company used wood dried by a salt process. Wood took in very slight amounts of salt in the drying process. Where ever that wood contacts metal it rust. Even 40 plus years later. They had to replace hundreds of high grade stocks. Best to get as much of any salt in the wood out before you try to use it.
 
I turned a good few pens made from driftwood and one from a shipwreck.. Never ran into any problems with them and they were from salt water.. One driftwood pen I did last summer had a few soft spots on it due to punky wood and after filling the voids with CA, no problem at all. I still have a few that I did last summer and they look the same as day #1 with no problems on the CA or tips.

As long as its dry, get turning :D
 
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GouletPens said:
That's an interesting questions, I've never even thought about that. Then again, I don't know if I've seen anyone make pens from wood submerged in salt water before. I've seen the Irish Bog Oak and ancient Kauri, but those I don't believe are from salt water. But maybe they are, I don't have a friggin' clue! I would say, make one and find out!!
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No bog oak isn,t found in salty water.
 
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