salt water curing of mahogany
DoninFortLauderdale
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hello All,
I am in the Bahamas at Man-o-war Cay in the Abacos (since the late 1700’s known for wooden boat building). One of the locals who builds boats soaks Madera (name for local Mahogany) in salt water to cure. I looked this up on the internet and could not find anything. I am wondering if the salt soaks into the wood and after removed from the saltwater when drying tends to dry the wood faster than otherwise when air drying. Does anyone know what is happening in this process.
Thanks,
Don
Replies
Don,
This may not be what you are looking for, but wooden ships used to have a salt box in the bilge, near the chain hold. The idea was that the salty water in the bilge would keep the wood swollen shut and prevent leaks.
This was not to season the wood for use, but rather to keep it in good condition.
Larry and Lin Pardey put such a salt box in their ship.
Mike
The salt was to kill the organisms in fresh water that cause rot.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
Dgreen,
Not to be combative, but it was a salt-water boat. Larry and Lin Pardey were well known world cruisers by sail. The boat in question was designed with a bathtub where an engine would normally be, as they did not use internal combustion engines - never sure if that was an anti-power statement or simply their philosophy of simpler is better. This was to replace their 26 footer, with a 32 footer. Again, their philosophy was that their boat *was* their lifeboat. Wrote a lot of articles for Sail magazine in the 60's and 70's.
Mike
Salty rainwater?
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
GH Pratt in his Timber drying manual, p 13 (ISBN 1860811248) briefly describes using salt as a means for drying wood. The idea as I understand it is that salt, being hygroscopic, is spread on to the planks and it attracts the moisture out of the wood cells and into the salt. It works on the principle that water transfers from a low concentration zone to a higher concentration zone. I imagine submerging wood into very salty water works on much the same principle, but I can't give you anything definitive. Slainte.
Richard Jones Furniture
Not to sure about salt water curing. It sounds like a boat builders trick to expand the wood for boat construction. In Michigan (fresh water) if we put put our mahogany boats in the water in the spring and try to run them you will sink after about 200 yards. We set the old wooden boats on a lift with the hull under water for about a week and everythig gets nice and tight.
I don't have an answer for you. But you might post this question on the forum at http://www.woodenboat.com.
Don,
Curing with salt does cure wood quickly, but be cautious with what you will use the wood for after drying. Do not use salt dried wood in contact with metal. Browning firearms used this very process in the years 1972-1973 when the call for the Browning Superposed shotgun could not keep up with their ability to dry walnut stock blanks. They stacked up walnut blanks and covered them with salt. As the moisture from the top blanks was drawn out, it settled and was absorbed by the bottom blanks in the stacks as salt water. When these blanks were fitted to metal actions, the salt moisture in the blanks wreaked havoc with corrosion in the actions of the guns. If you google on "salt wood guns" you will be able to read the whole story. In the end it cost Browning a lot of money to restock and make right the guns involved. Hope this info helps.
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