Cleanin A Stock - What Do You Use?

[gregw]

Hi all, so what do you folks use to clean up a dirty stock without taking off the original finish? Any tips or instructions would be great!

Thanks!!!

Greg

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[louthepou]

Hi Greg, I think this depends on what you have to start with. A Lee Enfield needing serious repairs, I will strip with Circa 1850 furniture stripper. Sometimes if it's just filthy dirty, I'll use paint thinner to disolve the grime and recoat with pure boiled linseed oil after that. A Mosin Nagant is a different story, it's finished with shellac, so other stuff would be used to clean or strip.

Lou

[Johnny Peppers]

If the stock is just grimy and grungy you can use boiled linseed oil and turpentine 50/50 and 4/0 steel wool used very lightly to remove the grunge and leave any original finish. Coat the stock with the 50/50 mix and let it set about 30 minutes. Then use the 4/0 steel wool with just enough pressure to clean the stock. After using the mix, wipe the stock clean, removing all you can get back off. This should dry in less than 24 hours and see if you need to follow up with additional coats of the 50/50 mix, applied as thin as you can.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Pure turpentine. For initial removing of general grubbiness and mixing with the linseed oil.
Pure linseed oil. For feeding the stock, but very, very slowly - over weeks rather than days.
Linen rags. To apply the above. If the stock is still tacky days later, you are applying far too much.

Time.

And no abrasives. Well, OK, maybe in desperate cases, but as lightly as possible. Flexible scrapers are better for paint blobs and similar "lumpy" spots, after applying a jelly-type paint stripper to the affected areas only.

For a shellac (Mosin-Nagant) finish, a linen rag dampened with alcohol (methylated spirits is OK) will dissolve the surface, enabling you to smooth out minor scratches if you go very carefully. Practice on a not-too-visible area at first! Do not soak, or you will remove the surface completely.

Get good qualtiy materials from a professional paint store or artists suppliers. Not cheapo turps substitute etc from the DIY store. You only need very small quantities, so get the best.

[Johnny Peppers]

The linseed oil bought from an artist's supply is unnecessary on a gun stock. It is more highly refined so that an artist's white pigment remains white, and this isn't required on a gunstock. I don't use any of the new turpentine substitutes, and you may have to search to find Turpentine.

[LouisianaJoe]

I have had good luck using Howard's Restor-a-finish. It is available from Lowes or Home Depot. It will disolve the grunge and surface finish without altering the color. You can get it with stain in it and I have used the Walnut on CMP Garand Stocks to darken it a bit.

After cleaning the stock with Restor-a-finish, I hand rub several coats of tung oil finish like Formby's. Polish with 3m White pads between coats. Then wax the stock after that.

I have finished several stocks this way. It will not work with shellac.

Here is a CMP Special Grade Garand. It has a correct receiver, barrel and trigger group all dating to 1955. The bore measures .5. I redid the stock as mentioned above.

[HOOKED ON HISTORY]

You did non mention what type of rifle. If is an Arisaka be very careful as the finish is very easily damaged and from what I understand about impossiable to duplicate.

[Aragorn243]

linseed oil seems pretty safe on an Arisaka. It seems to dissolve the grime without hurting the finish. I've done two now and while the finish on both was a bit rough to begin with, they both came out ok, much better than they were. It will not remove any deep staining however but anything that would would probably take off the finish.