Rifle stock cleaning and finishing.

[Rburney]

I started working on the stock this week. Tried using the Minwax furniture restorer on one section and used mineral spirits on another. The Minwax worked better but this stock was really dirty and greasy. I ended up using a decent coat of easy-off oven cleaner and left it on for 10 minutes. I could see the years of build up rolling off the stock as I rinsed it. After the initial quick rinse with the hose, I brought it into the house and used a toothbrush to lightly scrub the stock. Then I gave it a final rinse and dried it off. I let it sit for 24 hours and then took the Bissell steam cleaner I bought at Meijer and steamed the stock. I am now letting it sit for a day or so before I start with the BLO application. Overall this stock was in poor condition when I started. I actually got the stock and barrel from a INGO member that sent it to me for free if I paid the shipping cost. Thank you. I figured this was the perfect stock to attempt my first cleaning and restoration. The stock has turned out great so far. The stock is clean and the dents and minor imperfections came out well with the steam machine. I am very happy with the results so far. I attached some.photos but I wish I would have taken more. View attachment 81341 View attachment 81342 View attachment 81343 View attachment 81344

The first photo is the before. The wrist photo os the before the steam cleaner picture. I will post the after on that later. It really minimized the look of those dents.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Looking good! I always used Murphy's Oil Soap and water, with a soft green Scotch pad to get most of the outer grime off. I'd use a hand steamer (Shark I think) for getting the cosmoline out if it had really soaked into the wood.

This is a Brazilian Mauser I did with just the Murphy's and then BLO.

Before:

After:

 

[Old Bear]

Looking good! I always used Murphy's Oil Soap and water, with a soft green Scotch pad to get most of the outer grime off. I'd use a hand steamer (Shark I think) for getting the cosmoline out if it had really soaked into the wood.

This is a Brazilian Mauser I did with just the Murphy's and then BLO.

Before:

After:

That stock looks great. It still has all of the character of an old war horse, but it still shows the beauty of old world craftsmanship. I love the way the grain came out with the BLO treatment.

 

[tenring]

Several years ago, when the CMP allowed the purchase of more than one M1 Garand, I got brave and ordered five to see if I could maybe clean them up, refinish the stocks, swap some parts to do rebuilds, and re-sell 4 of them to make the 5th one free to keep. Cleaning metal, swapping a part or two was no problem. Tried just about every thing mentioned to get all of that BLO off. The smell on most of them was bad, so I quit for a while, the wife suggesting so. Went to the Jouster site and found the solution. Painters use this stuff to clean old painted walls. https://www.walmart.com/ip/TSP-Hard-Surface-Cleaner/39574275. Winter came on when I first tried the mix, done with "water". Mixed up a 5 gal. plastic bucket per the instructions and started on one. Then figured that if I used an old hair drier the wife was going to throw away on the stock to get it hot, I just dipped the stock in the bucket let it soak for a bit and them scrubbed it down with a hand brush commonly used to scrub floors with. The BLO started coming off big time. As this was done in the shower in a down stairs bath room any splashes went right down the drain, and when done with every bit of wood I would rinse the stock with very hot water to remove any that didn't get back into the bucket. Hit the stock with the hair dryer again to dry the stock, hung it up to dry. Looked at it the next day and was totally surprised at the nice looking grain that was in that old stock. Finish the other 4 that way, waited a few days to make sure all the grit, grime, and BLO was gone. If not, took no time at all to give it a go over again to make sure. The hot water rinse made some of the dents and gouges almost disappear. Did the sand paper to smooth out the bits that rose up, careful not to remove any cartuches [sp], and when satisfied started. Things looked like they just came out of the factory using 100% Pure Tung Oil. Good way to kill some time when it's too cold to spend time outside. Put the best looking metal into the best looking stock and wound up with an H&R that looked like it was never issued, and with hand loads was a 2"MOA rifle. Sold the other 4 at a price figured out to cover all my expenses for the whole project, and wound up costing me nothing for the one I kept. Labor and time was the only non-recoverable items. And never heard one more peep out of the boss lady except "why did you all that, you already had one of the things". YMMV

 

[Rburney]

Looking good! I always used Murphy's Oil Soap and water, with a soft green Scotch pad to get most of the outer grime off. I'd use a hand steamer (Shark I think) for getting the cosmoline out if it had really soaked into the wood.

This is a Brazilian Mauser I did with just the Murphy's and then BLO.

Before:

After:

that does look great. I really like when stocks have the tiger stripe wood grain.

 

[Rburney]

Several years ago, when the CMP allowed the purchase of more than one M1 Garand, I got brave and ordered five to see if I could maybe clean them up, refinish the stocks, swap some parts to do rebuilds, and re-sell 4 of them to make the 5th one free to keep. Cleaning metal, swapping a part or two was no problem. Tried just about every thing mentioned to get all of that BLO off. The smell on most of them was bad, so I quit for a while, the wife suggesting so. Went to the Jouster site and found the solution. Painters use this stuff to clean old painted walls. https://www.walmart.com/ip/TSP-Hard-Surface-Cleaner/39574275. Winter came on when I first tried the mix, done with "water". Mixed up a 5 gal. plastic bucket per the instructions and started on one. Then figured that if I used an old hair drier the wife was going to throw away on the stock to get it hot, I just dipped the stock in the bucket let it soak for a bit and them scrubbed it down with a hand brush commonly used to scrub floors with. The BLO started coming off big time. As this was done in the shower in a down stairs bath room any splashes went right down the drain, and when done with every bit of wood I would rinse the stock with very hot water to remove any that didn't get back into the bucket. Hit the stock with the hair dryer again to dry the stock, hung it up to dry. Looked at it the next day and was totally surprised at the nice looking grain that was in that old stock. Finish the other 4 that way, waited a few days to make sure all the grit, grime, and BLO was gone. If not, took no time at all to give it a go over again to make sure. The hot water rinse made some of the dents and gouges almost disappear. Did the sand paper to smooth out the bits that rose up, careful not to remove any cartuches [sp], and when satisfied started. Things looked like they just came out of the factory using 100% Pure Tung Oil. Good way to kill some time when it's too cold to spend time outside. Put the best looking metal into the best looking stock and wound up with an H&R that looked like it was never issued, and with hand loads was a 2"MOA rifle. Sold the other 4 at a price figured out to cover all my expenses for the whole project, and wound up costing me nothing for the one I kept. Labor and time was the only non-recoverable items. And never heard one more peep out of the boss lady except "why did you all that, you already had one of the things". YMMV

i have a couple of other stocks on project guns that I want to clean. I will try this on the next one.