Boiling a Wood Stock for Grease/Grime removal?

[John 242]

I would suggest a "green scrubby" or Scotchbrite pad instead of steel wool. Steel wool can push a steel fibre into the stock that you don't notice until it rusts later.

At the very least, run a rare earth/neodymium magnet over the stock after wooling.

Steel wool on metal, synthetics for wood.

Bren R.

That makes a lot of sense. 0000 steel wool seemed to 'shed' quite a bit, leaving steel wool fibers all over. I'm going to add this advice to my data base.
Matter of fact, I'm going to save this page to my documents file. Lots of good info here.
Thanks,
John T

[303Guy]

I only did it once, boiling a stock. It's not a quick fix or short-cut to anything. It's the hard way. Boiled linseed oil and natural turpentine cleans up the surface grime just fine.

It's when the stock in question is cracked and blackened by oil born dirt within those crack and needs rebuilding requiring glue and fillers that boiling comes into its own. I'd still rather soak the stock in toluene or MEK or acetone for a few days. My Remington 22 stock was not walnut and therefore not a candidate for boiling.

[Char-Gar]

I would suggest a "green scrubby" or Scotchbrite pad instead of steel wool. Steel wool can push a steel fibre into the stock that you don't notice until it rusts later.

At the very least, run a rare earth/neodymium magnet over the stock after wooling.

Steel wool on metal, synthetics for wood.

Bren R.

You ever had a piece of rusty left over steel wool in/on a stock? I have been finishing and refinishing stocks for 50 years and I have not seen or heard of such a thing. I have used steel wood on them all. I think this is just theory read or hear somewhere, not backed up by fact.

[Char-Gar]

I would suggest a "green scrubby" or Scotchbrite pad instead of steel wool. Steel wool can push a steel fibre into the stock that you don't notice until it rusts later.

At the very least, run a rare earth/neodymium magnet over the stock after wooling.

Steel wool on metal, synthetics for wood.

Bren R.

You ever had a piece of rusty left over steel wool in/on a stock?

I have been finishing and refinishing stocks for 50 years and I have not seen or heard of such a thing. I have used steel wood on them all. I think this is just theory read or hear somewhere, not backed up by fact. But if there folks with rusty steel wool in their stocks, I would like to hear from them.

[303Guy]

I was wondering the same thing. I was told by a gun-maker about using steel wool. I have used it a few times and never noticed any rust.

[303Guy]

I have a horrible old grimy SMLE fore-end under my bed that I wouldn't use as is. I'm thinking of boiling it! It does have some filler pieces in it and I'd be expecting those to come out. This one is heavy which soaked in oil can only make worse and I'm not into heavy guns any more. This one is destined for my pig gun and will be very short so warping is not going to be an issue. It's so ugly right now I don't care if it warps.

[Bren R.]

You ever had a piece of rusty left over steel wool in/on a stock?

Never on a stock, but I'd moved away from steel wool by the time I started doing any stock work. Had it happen on an old tube radio. To be fair, that was a thin veneer and probably more easily punctured, but it was enough to keep me from using steel wool on a stock, especially after opening up the pores.

Bren R.

[uscra112]

MEK and Toluene. Oh, yeah, great for your liver.

[303Guy]

MEK and Toluene. Oh, yeah, great for your liver.

Worked with it for years. Apparently no liver damage - not detectable anyway. Brain damage is a possibility. Yup, you don't want to breathe the stuff or get it on your skin as it does get absorbed. Unfortunately I did both as did everyone working there. I once got sprayed in my face and over my head, into my ears too. Try not to let that happen. It hurts just a little and then afterwards one is left intoxicated from the absorption. It's like being on fire. I had a quick look before I went down and lost my vision so I could crawl to the door and feel my way to the water sink where I was able to 'cool' the burning and wash some of it off with hand soap. Loss of vision is only from the involuntary squeezing the eyes shut from the pain. I knew the pain would come quickly so I braced myself on the floor so I wouldn't fall. It came on quickly. Not fun.

[Char-Gar]

Never on a stock, but I'd moved away from steel wool by the time I started doing any stock work. Had it happen on an old tube radio. To be fair, that was a thin veneer and probably more easily punctured, but it was enough to keep me from using steel wool on a stock, especially after opening up the pores.

Bren R.

Ben..Fine steel wool has been used for generations on fine stocks by thousands of stockmakers. It is recommended for that use. If there were problems as you describe, I would think they would have shown up by now. Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but in the case of stock work, it is just a theory with no facts to back it up.

I don't mean to "get after you" on this subject, but I do get concerned about posts that purport to be facts with zero experience to back them up. Folks with a similiar lack of experience, read those posts and have no way of evaulating the content. Lots of stuff that is not true, and has never been true, get passed around, repeated over and over again on the Internet boards until until some folks will fight to the last drop of blood to back up something was never anything but a theory.

I never post anything on this board or any other board that is not backed up with personal experience. There are plenty of times, others have different experiences and that is fine, but we move the ball down the field when we share experiences and not theories.

Again, nothing personal in this, just wanting to keep things clear.


Take care and good shooting...Charles

[John 242]

Not having any stock experience other than general cleaning and light sanding it's a benefit to pick peoples brains.
Not having my own technique, it's great to get this kind of information.

Stock boiling, like most things in life, seems to have it's advocates and those that reject it.
Without serious thought and research, I wouldn't drop my stock into boiling water.
On the other hand, knowing that the technique exists and may be applicable is something to log into my data base.

All the advice given on removing Cosmoline is greatly appreciated. I know it's been hashed and rehashed over and over. That wasn't my intent, but seemed to be the natural course of things.

As I become more knowledgeable regarding gunsmithing techniques, I'm finding that there many different ways to accomplish the same outcome. Some are more expedient, less costly, or simpler than others.

Having been a NCO in the Army for most of my adult life, it's hard to admit that I don't know what I'm doing, yet. I am more that willing to ask, though.

I've been working my way backwards through ALL of the threads in this gunsmithing forum, trying to pull relevant information from nearly 6 years worth of posts. Some is relevant, some isn't, but I am learning.

Having 'peer reviewed' information a great benefit.

Thanks,
John T.

[Gunfreak25]

I would strongly advice against boiling any stock for many of the reasons listed above. To degrease a stock you can use a few methods. I've started with P14 stocks that were so heavily oil soaked they were JET BLACK, but after using slow gentle heat and a little elbow grease the stocks returned to their normal light brown walnut color.

Most people seem to be all on the same page as far as the use of oven cleaner is concerned. It contains LYE which removes the natural wood fiber glues causing the stock to burn (gray color) or get soft spots in the grain. Simply put, wood and lye are not friends.

Using the oven is my favorite method but it doesn't always work due to stock length. I reside in Yuma, AZ where it reaches 118 in the summer so it's not hard to do a little wood weeping outside just by sitting the piece in the sun. You will only get so much oil out of the wood this way, the next step is usually a series of denatured alcohol scrubbings with superfine steel wool (0000) and denatured alcohol. It's quite simple, you scrub the stock in small patches at a time and wipe the area clean with paper towels. It's quite time consuming, but you can rest assured knowing the wood is not being harmed in the least.

Remember folks, it took many years for our Military stocks to become as oil soaked as they are. If you do it right, you can remove most of the oil in a month or less.

Tom

[303Guy]

Well, I'd tend to agree. But for fun and to see exactly what will happen I'll boil mine (it's a piece of scrap as it is). I'm going to cut it down and it's so rough I'll be building it up a a bit in places anyway. I was going to cut it down first but for the sake of the experiment I'll make a trough long enough to boil it in. It's only a shortened fore-end. I'll takes pics of before, during and after and report back.

[Bren R.]

Again, nothing personal in this, just wanting to keep things clear.

Nothing personal taken. I appreciate that you worded your response in a non-confrontational way. I use steel wool on metal, and used to use it for removing overspray from car windows. I still have some in the shop, and I use it - just not on wood.

I've been "once bitten" by steel wool, so I'm "twice shy" about it. For me, the green scrubby just gives me a visual cue that there's nothing left on the stock (if you see a green fuzz, pick it off, it doesn't hide like steel wool fibres) and has zero chance of messing anything up. It does the job well, so I use it. I also find it to have a gentler scrubbing action - being that it's closer to the hardness of wood.

My grandfather used steel wool, so I learned to use steel wool... and over time, I looked into other abrasives and I prefer a synthetic pad. I've got more options at my fingertips than he did. And when one works better, I'll use it.

I'm just providing another point of view.

Bren R.

[Milsurp Junkie]

If using steel wool, and you are concerned about embedded/unseen fibers. Use a magnet (harddrive magnets are awesome for this). Then rub it with a tacky cloth. It is specifically made to remove sawdust, embedded sand paper grit and foreign objects from wood prior to finishing.
We used this on 1)Our installed bamboo floors, 2) baby furniture (pine, finished with real Tung Oil) and 3) gun stocks. It works awesome. The sticky wipe is a some sort of cheese cloth with a sticky beewax mixture and can be purchased at any Big Box home improvement shop that has a decent wood finishing department.

[Bren R.]

I use hard drive magnets (which are rare earth types) for that very purpose.

And tack cloth-ing off the piece before any finish is applied should be a given.

Fold it once, use one side... use the other side... fold it back so what WAS inside is now outside, use both sides... discard. Don't keep them around forever.

Bren R.

[Tokarev]

When I have to de-grease a stock or grips, I wrap it in cotton soaked in acetone (MEK would work too) or methanol depending on finish, stuff the cavities with that cotton too, then bandage cotton with cotton fabric tape snugly and pack in airtight bag (a few PET and aluminum foil layers). Soaked cotton sucks grease out of wood in a few days.

[303Guy]

Thanks for that tip, Tokarev. I was wondering about something like that but didn't know quite how.

[Slam'n Salmon]

If you boil wood or steam it you want to put it in its finished shape before it cools/dries.

For a stock I would put the barreled action back in stock before it cools to prevent warping.

The boiling won't warp the stock but make it soft. If not supported it will bend like rubber. You can take a 1 x 1/2 in oak strip and tie it in a knot after steaming it 10 minutes.

[mud lake]

how about a heat gun

I use a heat gun and wipe off the gunk that liquifies to the surface. Keep doing this until satisfied and if deep doo-doo still shows through use whiting applied with a penetrant such as mineral spirits. On occasions I have used chemical paint stripper, even Easy Off but I like to stay away from harsh stuff if at all possible.