Oil Impregnated Forestock

[smellie]

The Carb cleaners we use in this country are definite no-nos, being that they are designed to dissolve carbon. Wood, being made primarily of carbon, really is not the best thing to use them on. Spill the stuff on your pants and it will dissolve them for you, can also give you a nasty skin burn, which is about when it starts to hurt and you wash it off.

We have a number of brake-drum and brake-pad cleaners which just lift the oil and guck out and float it off. The one that people think about is the original, called (nobody knows why) BRAKE-KLEEN. There are a number of various proprietary knock-offs, but they all do the same. All are spray-on products, gas off into the air quite quickly. You are not supposed to use them inside but I haven't been poisoned by them (yet).

I spray the stuff on, wipe it off, repeat until I get no more oil at that time. Stand the wood in a warm corner and let more oil work its way to the surface. It will try to balance out and now there is NONE at the surface, so interior oil attempts to make up this void. Then hit it again. After several treatments, the wood will void no more oil. Then you can start finishing properly. So you hit it one more time with the spray and begin immediately to apply your finish to the now-completely-bone-dry wood.

I went through this entire process with a Type 38 Arisaka which I was given by a dealer in order to "upgrade the quality of his junk rack". It was pretty bad, leaked oil enough to soak thoroughly a couple of complete copies of the Winnipeg (city) newspaper. I hit it with the Brake-Kleen a few times, letting the thing soak-out betwen treatments. When the stock got oily again on the surface, I would hit it with more of the spray and wipe it down again with paper towelling. After about week and a half (and almost two $4 cans of cleaner), I had a stock which accepted rather a decent boiled-oil finish. Not correct, I know, but no more motor oil will ever get at that particular piece of wood.

Hope this helps someone.
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[postino]

I did a Google Search for 'Nitromors' here in the US; nothing came up...but Brake-Kleen seems to be everywhere...I'll see what that does, as per your instructions...

[Surpmil]

No sanding? What's this all about? How does one smooth after stripping if not by sanding when dry?

Or is it, "no sanding with power tools or by clumsy people who don't know not to sand down edges and contours"?

That I'll accept.

[Peter Laidler]

To some people, like Armourers and cabinet makers, sanding means fine scraping with a properly shaped and hardened scraper followed by a bit of necessary grain lifting followed by across the grain sanding with the finest/smoothest sand paper ON A BLOCK in order to maintain the radius followed by wood boning to close the grain and force the linseed in.

To others, like carpenters and antique restorers, sanding means letting rip with the commercial belt sander just after you've finished sanding the floors of your school classroom or gymnasium.

[postino]

...followed by wood boning to close the grain and force the linseed in...

Boning wood is a lost art here in the US, unless you're a professional baseball player...(The process is similar in concept to knocking in a cricket bat)...

I would have thought that the objection to sanding (using various grades of sandpaper) was that it destroyed the original finish/contours/defects made by the manufacturing process...Over-restoring...

My Walnut carbine wood is being sanded progressively finer, after having the excess cut off by bandsaw and formed to shape/contour by files...

...But I have located a Birch (or is it Beech?) buttstock in Canada, and a Birch/Beech forestock in England; both of which are en route to me here in the US...Both are No 4 wood, and will be cut, milled, filed, and sanded to resemble No 5 carbine furniture...

While I like the look of Walnut, the grain of Birch and the blondeness of it is appealing to me...

[mdrim13]

No sanding? What's this all about? How does one smooth after stripping if not by sanding when dry?

As Peter said, it is a general rule because people often refuse to use their head. Sanding with a block can be just fine as well as very fine cross grain sanding. The problem is when a guy trys to sand out 10-20 years or more of military service with some paper he bought at home depot and his hand. It will destroy the contours, make the surface uneven, destroy any possible markings and provide impropper wood/metal fit. Just use your head and all will be just fine.

mdrim13

[postino]

I think I'm pretty much finished...I brushed on some lacquer thinner to dilute the surface oil/grease; some CitruStrip; sanded a bit with various grades of W&D paper; finished up with 00 steel wool and a coat of BLO...

Didn't turn out too badly...Good enough for gov't work...