Removing Tru Oil

[deltaenterprizes]

I am working on a gunstock that went through Hurricane Katrina that was finished with Birchwood Casey Tru Oil. Anybody have a tried and true method to remove it?

[docone31]

Easy Off! oven cleaner. Or, sodium hypochlorite. Easy Off! is already mixed though.
Spray it on, let it sit a bit, wash it off. Repeat.
Easy.
You can wipe the feathers when you refinish it.
I use a plastic sanding pad to rub the feathers off. I oil it, then wipe it with the pad, let it dry, sand it back to the wood, repeat.
Makes a beautiful finish.

[Tom W.]

Lots of fine steel wool and time...

[leftiye]

Sand paper works (works the heck out of you). If the stock doesn't have a lot of damage, leave some of the tru oil as a grain filler and finish over it with tung oil or linseed oil.

[Molly]

Tru Oil is primarily just a blown linseed finish, and most paint strippers should remove it with very little work.

[nicholst55]

Tru Oil is primarily just a blown linseed finish, and most paint strippers should remove it with very little work.

+1; that's how I usually remove it.

Also, for any oil-based finish, products like Formby's Furniture Refinisher and #0000 steel wool will take it right off. I buy it in the gallon can, and fill a small paint bucket about 2/3 full. Insert the stock into the stuff (wear gloves, and work outside), and wipe it down with the Formby's. The finish will come right off. Rinse it with some clean Formby's and let it dry for 24 hours.

[rmcc]

I sand through Tru Oil till I lose the "dark". That way it seems to re-apply evenly.

Rich

[uscra112]

Any oils in wood, linseed or mineral, will come out with very hot water and trisodium phosphate. Easiest way to do it, if the stock will fit, is run it through a dishwasher. This shocks a lot of people, but I've stripped at least a dozen old stocks this way, and it works very, very well. The wood needs to dry for a few days afterward, but that's a small hindrance given the thoroughness of the cleaning. BTW the oldtimers would tell you to make a trough of metal and boil the stock in a TSP solution. I'm just a little more hi tech. And not married, so there is no noise from SWMBO. Ordinary dishwasher detergents no longer have any TSP in them, thanks to a bunch of hyper-active greenies who lobbied the EPA. You have to go to the hardware store and buy Savogran, usually in the paint section. Add a teaspoon when washing dishes, too. They'll come out as clean as they used to.

[MtGun44]

Std paint stripper.

Bill

[deltaenterprizes]

Oven cleaner and a lot of sanding with 180 grit paper did the trick!