How To Clean An Old Military Rifle Stock

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1. Got a surplus rifle coming my way - what is the best way to clean the wooden stock?

   In the past I have just used gun oil, which takes off some of the storage dirt and does not damage the stock.
   Not interested in whatever kind of restauration, merely the right way to go them make clean and fix for the gun range again...

2. I apply Lemon Oil Furniture polish and 0000 (Actress Fine) steel wool.

   It will accept all the one-time grit & crud off without harming the remaining mill wood finish in the slightest.
   Information technology's fabricated for fine furnature afterall.

   Unlike gun oil, it is harmless to forest, or wood finish.
   (In otherwords, DO Non use gun oil on wood, period.)

   rc

3. If gun oil gets past the finish and into the wood fibers,it virtually certainly will harm the stock.

4. If it's just cosmoline on the cease, it volition come off pretty easily with rags or at well-nigh a quick wash with hot soapy water (and a very prompt and consummate drying). If there'due south no finish the cosmoline may have penetrated into the wood and volition be leaching out for ages. At that place are a number of fixes for that, none of them particularly like shooting fish in a barrel or satisfactory.

5. I accept had good results with this:
   http://semproducts.com/images/flyer_files/XXX%20FAMILY.pdf

   I take bought information technology at Bond Auto Supply but Sem told me many professional person auto supply outlets carry their products.

6. Surplusrifle.com has alot of articles and an entire second dedicated to only that question.

7. I just use the Orange Pledge spray and a rag with some practiced ole' elbow grease for my stocks. If your going to exist removing cosmoline, or grime, buildup, etc, I would reccomend looking at a more heavy-duty solution as stated in a higher place, like steel wool or cleaner specifically made for what you need to remove.

9. Don't utilize Dawn Power Dissolver if y'all just desire to clean information technology. That'south the stuff I use to STRIP stocks. Works groovy for that, but the finish volition go cheerio-goodbye.

10. If information technology's cosomoline soaked, I first take off all the metal and make clean them off with paint thinner.
    I then take a cloth that'due south soaked in the stuff and requite a cursory scrubbing of the wood.
    Then, have a cheapie towel, wrap information technology around the stock, cover that bit in a trash bag and toss the unabridged burrito in the body on a hot twenty-four hours.

    Oh, that and shoot it a lot.

    The final one seems to have washed the play tricks for me, although I can honestly say that my Mosin was 'sweating' for most the commencement 1000 rounds.

11. What kind of finish is currently on the wood?

12. Surplus = armed forces outcome = what cease?

    All the surplus rifles I've handled had some stain put on the white walnut outerwood used to cutting the textile cost, whatsoever further finishing was washed by the user with gun oil or the environment. Unremarkably floor wax. That would get stripped when their Outset Line Leader smelled it in the field.

    Wood armed services stocks don't get much of anything except a wipe downwards with the same rag the activity was wiped down with. The grime is also known as patina, and I question if information technology should exist removed at all if that is the way it came into possession. Removing patina on a rare collector firearm is a guaranteed way to lower the value.

    If you lot know for a fact information technology's just another shooter like a 100,000 others, still, be careful. Wood stains tin can be removed by a lot of stuff, the original night stain and slow look tin can be rapidly ruined when the result is a bright yellow with gloss. Non military at all.

13. Gun oil won't hurt the forest, though it might darken it if it soaks in, just even that'due south unlikely. If the stock is i of those nighttime, cosmoline soaked monsters, in that location are lots of manufactures around on how to remove the cosmo and re-oil with something a little more pleasant to handle. If information technology's a mosin with a shellaced stock then just don't worry near it, no lemon oil or sky knows what needed.

    Stock "maintenance" is something for the owner to enjoy, not something that actually protects the stock. Most guns in the United states alive in safes 99% of the fourth dimension and would practise just fine as raw wood.

14. I simply cannot hold.

    I have repaired mode too many old Winchester stocks that were oil soaked from years of owners squirting sewing machine oil in the activeness and standing them in a corner for the oil to drain down into the stock and ruin the wood.

    Cosmoline doesn't become a run a risk to penetrate much deeper then it did when the gun was dipped in it considering it is too thick once it cools.

    Gun oil just keeps post-obit the grain downwards deep within and will somewhen soften the wood and ruin it.

    rc

15. Non polymerizing oils may darken with age, merely they won't soften the wood. You're going to have to come up with something scientific before I'll believe that one. It sounds like the examples you've seen have been grossly over oiled in whatsoever case, I don't call back I've e'er used and so much oil on an action that it would run down and soak into the stock in any kind of quantity.

    Well-nigh of the lemon oils and similar stuff that you are recommending are little more than than light mineral oil (ie gun oil/sewing machine oil) with a little citrus smell added and if you lot're really lucky a bit of alkane wax. Such products are designed to proceed summit of a cured finish and fill light scratches with oil and wax, thus temporarily improving the appearance. They do nothing for the longevity of the cured end.

16. You did non say which surplus rifle? Most were treated with BLO at the mill every bit far as I know. What they got subsequently that in the field is whatever ones guess? I'd wait until you lot go it and so post pictures and what it feels like. There are a few optional ways to go hither, depending on what it was "maintained" with?

17. BLO, Tung oil, shellac, all have been used on mil-surps. You need to know the original finish to determine on how to clean the wood. Most use BLO as the original finish. To make clean those use a fifty/fifty mix of BLO and turpentine with some 000 steel/brass wool to scrub them downwardly. And so finish off with a few coats of BLO.

18. What is BLO? Boiled Linseed oil?

19. Yes, BLO is boiled linseed oil...madcratebuilder striking it on the nail. You lot have to know a little bit whats on the stock first. I've cleaned some milsurps that weren't to bad with Irish potato's Soap, and then Tung Oil, Tung Oil too cleans every bit you rub information technology in. If its got cosmoline on information technology y'all have to go with something else first.....lots of methods for that as some have suggested...and so you get into wether you lot desire to simply stip everything down an refinish an how....lots of info here for that to. I'm going with rcmodel on not putting oil on wood, I've read too many threads from guys who refinish that will tell you information technology harms the grains in the wood. No scientific documents to dorsum it.....

20. Naphtha, volition not harm the wood and evaporates very fast, you have to soak the wood, which means in a full stock, a great quanity. But you lot can reuse it also.
    Finding a vessel that will let the stock submerge in the liquid, might exist a problem with some stocks.

    Evidently gasoline works well also, and is a lot cheaper.

    Soak all the wood parts over nighttime, then wipe with absorptive rags until dry to the bear on, you may have to repeat, to get the oil out to the surface where it can be removed by wiping, and then WHEN YOUR Certain THE VAPORS ARE GONE,utilise a hair dryer or rut gun to bring more oil to the surface, and remove with a solvent dampened rag.

    It may have six-8 cycles, but you tin go the wood back to it's natural state before the finish was applied, so y'all can sand and apply your favorite finish.

21. Non to sound similar the THR burn marshall, simply go along in mind when using products such as Naptha and Gasoline, these are extremely flammable and will produce flammable vapors. Utilize in a well ventilated area; certainly no place where you may have a source of combustion such every bit your water heater, furnace, store heater, etc. And no smoking, either.

    Boiled linseed oil can also spontaneously ignite, including rags.

    And so, I know you've heard this a million times over, but just a reminder to make sure everyone gets through the process in one piece.

    Final edited: Nov 28, 2010

22. Is a drastic clean actually needed? Whenever someone starts mentioning sanding and steel wool. I gets a little nervioso.. The most I do to surplus guns is rub them downward with wax and or petroleum jelly, both of which protect, peculiarly shellac a la mosin-nagant.

23. Using 0000 steel wool isn't "drastic" cleaning. Mil-surps often have a thick layer of crud on them and steel wool is a very good way to remove information technology(with a cleaner). If it is cosmoline soaked I only utilise odorless mineral spirits. It is flammable simply considerably less so than gasoline.

24. "once information technology cools" existence the operative phrase. A lot of the unfinished cosmo'd rifles were plainly stored in less than ideal conditions and did get hot enough to get gooey. Multiply that by decades in some armory in Turkey, Yugoslavia or wherever and you have some serious infiltration of the grain.

25. What would yous utilise on a classic Enfield "Jungle Carbine", which has the yellowish stock and looks 'os dry'?

    There are probably ane or two very like #5s at "Joesalter", which is where my outset came from.

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Source: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads%2Fproper-wood-stock-cleaning-surplus-rifle.557094%2F

Posted by: kendallabroves.blogspot.com

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