Cosmoline or dark wood

[lyon13]

So I am new to milsurp rifles and am trying to figure out how to tell if my rifles just have a dark finish or if I am looking at cosmoline on or in the wood. I know how to tell if it's on the on metal and how to remove it but wood is a new area for me.

Information

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[mrclark303]

Pictures needed, it could just be dark wood or layers of dirt soaked linseed oil, of a combination of both.

[Aragorn243]

Generally, dark wood is decades of dirt and linseed oil. Cosmolene will typically weep and leave the surface wet in spots. Linseed oil can do the same thing if there's a lot of it. If the stock feels more or less dry, probably just age and dirt and should probably just be wiped down with a rag with BLO or maybe dish soap to remove a bit of it. There are stronger methods to remove more of it if you want, just depends how original you want it to look.

[Sunray]

Your dark 'finish' can be plain gun oil and not cosmoline or any kind of linseed oil too. Try a wee bit of any degreasant and see what happens. Dish soap is a degreasant. Nice and cheap to buy too.

[lyon13]

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Ok so now that I have my computer and not my phone here are some pictures of the wood, the flash makes it look a lot brighter than it actually is. the first two are of my mosin and the last two are my no4

[Aragorn243]

Looks like normal coloration to me.

[Patrick Chadwick]

Looks like normal old wood coloration to me as well. Try wiping over the particularly dark or grimy areas with a rage dampened with natural turpentine. If it comes up grubby, just polish away a bit. The turpentine will really "fire up" the natural grain, showing you what's grain and what's grubbiness. Note: well-ventilated room, no open fire or cigarettes etc!

[lyon13]

Looks like normal coloration to me.

So like some people are saying they just need a surface cleaning with dishsoap or BLO? bearing in mind I just want to clean the wood up while keeping it's age.

[Aragorn243]

Yes, I'd just wipe them down with a rag and some BLO or dishsoap. When I first started collecting, I tended to over clean. The longer I collect, the more I appreciate the aged look. I basically just wipe them down now and apply a few coats of BLO to bring the life back into them if they are dry. Not saying I still don't clean them if they are really bad. I've done a couple of Nepalese restores and those got the full deep cleaning. If they have the soaked in motor oil and then buried in the sand for 100 years look, they get cleaned.

[Brian Dick]

You lose the patina by cleaning with soap or ammonia. Sometimes it's necessary to clean wood if gluing/patching is needed before reassembly, etc. I'd just rub it out very gently with 0000 steel wool saturated with raw linseed oil. Wipe it off and Bob's your Uncle. Forget the boiled linseed oil. Everyone that thinks raw linseed doesn't dry is just plain wrong. They just don't know how to apply it correctly.