I try to stay away from water as much as possible(unlees i need to do a major repair) to avoid raising the grain & warpage. The best results I have had so far involved a varsol wash, followed by a couple of hours in the cosmo cooker, then more varsol. The worst I have ever seen was my verguiros. I don't know what they used on those stock but it must be super cosmo. They still leach cosmo every trip to the range(& not a little either). As a side note the more cosmo I take off the the lighter the stock gets & the first place I see cosmo come out is the end grain & the tiger stripes in the side.