Old wood refinishing

[Meta-Prometheus]

Heat and time is what it will take to remove cosmoline and oils from a wood stock. It takes years for that stuff to soak in. Many people suggest to leave the stripped stock in a black garbage bag out in the sun (on your porch/deck, car dash, etc). Wipe it off and repeat the process with a new bag. Obviously that is something you can only really do in the summer time unfortunately. After that wipe it down with mineral spirits. That will help mop up remaining surface grease/oil and absorb into the stock to keep it from drying out while also not affecting color. Then apply linseed oil. That will also take time. Light coats by hand with several days curing time.

Heat and time are your friends with restoring old stocks.

[Arik]

If you don't want to chance it in the oven....Or can't fit. Wrap it in newspaper and paper towels, stick it in a black plastic bag and let it sit outside under the sun on a hot day.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[Arik]

This is my sks I did with with my media above

Hopefully that wasn't a Russian one

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[futurerider103]

Norinco.

[RazorBurn]

Best thing I've found for removing cosmoline is just good old boiling water. Most people recommend raw or boiled lindseed oil for military type stock finishes. Good luck with your project. I love seeing restored sporters. Just finished saving an Enfield myself.

[futurerider103]

Using boiling water can cause the wood to split so I wouldn't do that method

[RazorBurn]

Using boiling water can cause the wood to split so I wouldn't do that method

You don't dunk the wood in the boiling water, you pour the boiling hot water over the wood. It will not split the wood as the wood's full of oil, but it will bring out the cosmoline very easily. Old milsurp wood is full of oils, you would spend a heckuva long time getting all the oil out of them. Most of your milsurp guys use the boiling water or the wrapped up in a black trashbag method, and a lot of us use both methods. Some use mineral spirits and gasoline, which work well with more elbow grease. If you use boiling hot water to clean the metal it works well too as it makes the metal hot enough so it dries very quickly. Of course go over metal with your favorite gun oil to prevent corrosion.

http://forums.thecmp.org/showthread.php?t=202485

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=32808

http://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=15830

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread.php?t=8091&

[Damon]

Here is a CMP article on refinishing that might be useful.

http://thecmp.org/training-tech/armo...aning-article/

[Meta-Prometheus]

Using boiling water can cause the wood to split so I wouldn't do that method

This. The only time water should be used on a stock is in the form of steam to lift dings, but sparingly.

Boiling water for the metal parts is okay as long as they are dried and quickly oiled.

I will state again that heat and time are your friends in removing grease/oils from wooden stocks. It takes patience to clean up mil-surp rifles properly, hence the prevalence of fast methods such as stripping agents and boiling water.