Cleaning Stock and Handguard

[rocky321]

What procedure and cleaner works best?

Information

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[imarangemaster]

"Charlie Painter 777" is the wood guru. I just washed mine down with warm mineral spirits/boiled linseed oil and cheese cloth to get the crud off, then used BLO to finish it.

[Wulf]

I use this method. It works perfectly.

Typically, you can put this mixture in a 20 oz. water bottle, some disfiguring of the bottle will
occur, but it should be good for quite some time.

4 ounces of De-natured Alcohol
4 ounces of Turpentine
4 ounces of Raw linseed oil (I never tried BLO)
and 1 ounce of Ammonia

When using it on the stock, scrub with steel wool or possibly a green scratchy. How dirty the
stock is, will determine how many times you have to use it. Typically, for a M1 Garrand Stock
from Korea - you know the really grungy ones, it will take 2 or 3 "treatments". Wipe the stock
with a disposable rag with Mineral Spirits in between applications. Also, let the stock set for a
day between treatments - you are using Linseed Oil here.
Due to the Linseed Oil, your stock is pretty much "Finished" when you're done cleaning it. A
quick go over with my 1/3 Mix and you'll be done. If you have any questions or suggestions, as
always, feel free to email them to me.

I got this from the Tom's 1/3 mix page.

[INLAND44]

Wulf's method sounds good. I understand it's hard to find raw linseed oil, but that's the best oil to use on it and is actually the WWII correct stock maintenance oil. If you can get any RLO, a simple cleaning/treating fluid is 1:1 Turpentine:RLO.

[Wulf]

Wulf's method sounds good. I understand it's hard to find raw linseed oil, but that's the best oil to use on it and is actually the WWII correct stock maintenance oil. If you can get any RLO, a simple cleaning/treating fluid is 1:1 Turpentine:RLO.

Hobby Lobby has the linseed oil that you seek.

[DaveN]

What's the difference between raw and boiled linseed oil.

[Wulf]

What's the difference between raw and boiled linseed oil.

Raw is period correct.

[us019255]

What's the difference between raw and boiled linseed oil.

Boiling.

Raw linseed oil is just oil extracted from the flax seed. A paint maker then heats it and boils it for awhile, following the temperature and viscosity. They also usually ad a "drier" to the oil before packaging.

Linseed oil reacts with oxygen in the air at the double bonds (unsaturation) to form a solid film. During the boiling process, some of the double bonds react. The drier is an organic salt of a metal (Pb, Ca, Cu for example). The metal ion catalyzes the reaction with the oxygen.

The final result is that the film forms much quicker with the boiled linseed oil, and it doesn't shrink as much resulting in a more glossy surface.

[Wulf]

Rustship, that is not the bottles I get from Hobby Lobby.

[kar66]

Back in the day we were told to use BLO, not raw. Because raw would just keep soaking into the wood and really build up. Where BLO would seal off and not build up in the wood. I remember stripping a stock that I had used raw on. It took forever to get it stripped.