Linseed Oil Finish - How to Clean? Refinishing?

[villiers]

After removing some of the worst dings with a damp cloth and a fairly hot steam iron, I use pure, unadulterated linseed oil, rubbing hard with a cloth on a cork sanding block. If there´s anything that does not come off, I use very fine pumice dust, mixed in with the oil and just rub hard. After several hours a day, and in just a few weeks, I guarantee that the finished stock will pass inspection.

[UNPROFOR1994]

Good Lord.!!!!! Where to begin...
Yes, oven cleaner is one way to STRIP a stock but not many here would suggest that method but as they say, To each his own..

I know the oven cleaner isn't the best method but the walnut oil works great, just try it once on a cheap R.C. Mauser or Mosin Nagant. The wood looks great. Just use the cheap walnut oil you can get for cooking.

[Brian Dick]

Try grocery store grade clear ammonia and a Scothbrite pad. Rinse with cold water, reapply RLO and buff out with fine steel wool. Repeat as many times as you desire. Never-ever-ever use lye based oven cleaner. It will damage and discolor or grey most gunstock wood and will destroy wood like Australian coachwood. No offense to anyone intended but it's a lazy mans method and does more harm than good.

[Johnny Peppers]

It all depends on how bad the stock is. If past restoring the finish, you might as well strip it and start over, but this is for basket cases only. If the stock is just grungy dirty with build up, us a mix of 50/50 turpentine and boiled linseed oil, and a 4/0 steel wool pad does wonders. Give the stock a heavy coat of the 50/50 mix and let it set 30 minutes to an hour, and then gently rub it down with the 4/0 steel wool. You can tell when the grunge is coming off, and when through wipe the stock down with toweling. After this you can use the 50/50 mix in very thin coats to restore the finish.

Oven cleaner works by breaking down organic material, and wood is organic. Some woods treated with oven cleaner turn yellow/green over time due to caustic bath in oven cleaner.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Never-ever-ever use lye based oven cleaner. It will damage and discolor or grey most gunstock wood and will destroy wood like Australian coachwood. No offense to anyone intended but it's a lazy mans method and does more harm than good.

Thanks for that, Brian. It's reassuring to know that I'm not alone on this. Likewise, drying methods like "put it in the oven/behind a window in blazing sunshine" are for people who have apparently never heard of "grain", "shrinkage" and "warping". Methods that would disturb a serious carpenter and shock a cabinet-maker are totally unsuited to a piece of precision engineering.

[Brian Dick]

I learned the ammonia trick in my youth from a gunsmith who built and restored many original black powder firearms from American Revolutionary War times through the American Civil War and later. It will clean/remove the grunge and grime and redistribute what's left of the old oil finish without damaging anything. Just be sure and use it outdoors or in a well ventilated area so it doesn't damage you! It's fine to put wood in the sun once coated with RLO and it will speed up the absorption process because the grain opens up a bit but you must be careful to make sure the oil doesn't build up in the bearings and draws because things will change. I've never had a problem with warping but I suppose it's possible if you don't keep a careful eye on things. I put them in the sun too to dry them out after cleaning and rinsing. It will raise the grain and many of the little handling marks and scratches will disappear when you soak it down with oil and rub it out with 0000 steel wool. It won't affect markings or original character if done carefully. I haven't laid a scraper or sand paper on an original stock for years unless it's an absolute basket case. It's really a no-no from a collector's point of view. Cleaning and preservation is a different story.

[Bruce_in_Oz]

Just be careful with steel wool, especially the ultra-fine grades.

Tiny fibres of steel get hooked on the "oblique" ends of the grain and they WILL corrode over time.

This will leave nasty, odd coloured stains on the timber.

My trick to remove any "metal whiskers" is simple:

Get the meanest, most powerful "permanent" magnet to be found.

Wrap it in a couple of layers of CLEAN, cheese-cloth.

Glide the "non-scratch" magnet slowly along the grain of the stock (or antique table etc).

Inspect the cloth for little grey whiskers.

Reverse or replace the cloth and then run it in lines in the opposite direction.

Novelty and scientific supply folks sell small "super magnets" that are very handy for getting into nooks and crannies with this technique. (also useful for finding, picking up etc., small "feral" parts that leap off the bench. Sadly, these do not work on brass screws...........

[WarPig1976]

I use "Tack cloth" and compressed air whenever I work with steel wool and wood. Tack cloth is sticky cheese cloth, available anywhere paint/stain is sold, woodworkers use it after sanding and between coats of finish.