De-oiling stock

[Duckiller]

No. 2 son recently acquired a Turkish Mauser, $30.00 +DROS, no matching serial nos. Stock has been cleaned to bare wood,but cut off real short. Also came with a military stock that seems to have been soaked in oil. Oil starts to seep out of wood if left in hot car for a few hours. As a project I get to try to refinish the military stock and install on the action. Does anyone have any idea how I can get some or most of the oil out of the stock. After cleaning and glueing cracks I will probably use an oil finish. As of right now no one wants to touch the stock. Only idea I have had so far is to wrap it in paper towels and leave in car for a couple of days to bake out the surplus oil. Have considered putting synthentic stock except son thinks that actions should cost more than stocks. Any ideas to de-oil,degrease would be greatly appreciated. Jeff

[leftiye]

I never had one that bad, so dipping them in lacquer thinner and then a good degreasing soap followed by a good rinse has worked for me (repeat as necessary). Others here have a plethora of methods including trips through a dishwasher, and some really aggresive degreasers. Research the threads on gunstocks, and removing finishes, and you should find these.

You should try to figger out what kind of oil it is- machine lube or linseed oil, etc.. Sounds like unboiled linseed oil maybe (cooking out), either of these will never dry and will deep six most of the finishes you might try to use.

[crazy mark]

I use the soak in the bathtub method with a liberal amount of tri sodium phosphate.
Another method is to wrap in a black plastic garbage bag and stand up with a small chunk of 4 x 4 that it stands on so the oils will run to the bottom.
Some wives don't understand the bath tub soak but if you stick the stock in the oven at 170 deg F they will appreciate the bathtub method. Mark

[Newtire]

I went the oven cleaner route and took about 6 treatments and still didn't get it all. I think the best way to get it out is to leave it in the sun like you are doing. I got the last bit out with brake Kleen. Those stocks finish up real pretty. Walnut wood and everything. Would be a real shame to go the plastic route. Mine loves the lee 175 grainer. Just about everyone bought one a few years ago and wishes he would have bought more.

Where did you get it for $30.00? I paid $38.88 at Big-5 a few years ago.

[Crash_Corrigan]

I have a czech 98/22 Mauser that was soaked in oil. I removed all the metal and took it out to the back yard and laid it in the hot Vegas sun for a week. Every couple of hours I would go out there and turn it over and wipe it down with a roll of paper towels. It took a week but it was only 110 degrees. When I got done I sanded out some of the scratched areas and used an Iron to get out some dents. Then I applied Tung Oil finish. It has not leaked in years it is a ball to plink with. I am awaiting the GB .323 plinker mold but I guess I have a couple of months more to wait.

[jballs918]

crash is right, but put it in the trunk of your car works even better

[Newtire]

You should try to figger out what kind of oil it is- machine lube or linseed oil, etc.. Sounds like unboiled linseed oil maybe (cooking out), either of these will never dry and will deep six most of the finishes you might try to use.

Hi Leftiye,

I think it might be just remains of the cosmoline these things were packed in. In any case, you've gotta get it all out or nothing will stick to it. When you think you're all done, set it out in the hot sun and see if anything else comes out.

[Junior1942]

crash is right, but put it in the trunk of your car works even betterThat's what I did with my Turk 38. Wrap it in newspaper, throw it in the trunk, then park the car in the sun. A dark colored car, of course. Wipe it down with old rags every couple of hours.

If I ever decide to do something with my extra Turk 38 I'll take the metal parts over to my mechanic's parts washing tank. It even has a hose.

[sundog]

I did a couple of CMP 03s with oven cleaner on a hot day. Took about three times to get it all. Worked just fine.

[I Haines]

I used my blueing tank to boil some military stocks in TSP. One was so bad that I boiled it a couple of times and still had oil in it. This really opens up the grain and it took a lot of sanding afterwards. IH

[trooperdan]

All these methods will work but some are pretty rough on the wood. I prefer to avoid oven cleaner and boiling them. I use a combination of heat and a solvent though. Brownell's sells "whiting" for this purpose; I think it is just powdered chalk. I make a thick paste of whiting with acetone and slather it on thick, wrap in balck plastic and leave in the car in the hot North Carolina sun.

[Char-Gar]

I had had to do this on a couple of occasion and I have used acetone and steel wool. Seems to work for me.

[Duckiller]

Everyone: Thank you. Am starting with leaving in sun and will get more agressive as the project progresses. Newtire: Son works part time in a local gun shop. Mauser was part of a 2 fer package deal involving a clean Moisin-Nagaunt. They couldn't sell the mauser and the two guns took some of the sting out of the DROS fee.

[JesterGrin_1]

Just a thought. Has anyone tried K2 R ? You can spray it on as it goes on wet and will pull the oil to the top of the foam and then wipe it off. I am sure it would take a few treatments.

I have not used it for this but for Balsa when soaked with oil.

[MtGun44]

What is K2 R?

Thanks.

Bill

[JesterGrin_1]

What is K2 R?

Thanks.

Bill


http://www.k2rbrands.com/products/original.htm :)

[Ricochet]

A popular method on the milsurp boards has been to bag them up with something like kitty litter and leave them in a hot parked car. I haven't gone that far, myself. I've used paper as the absorbent material. I have Turks and a 98/22 that still ooze oil when they get hot years after I've had them. I don't worry about carrying them out on drizzly days.

[leftiye]

FWIW, There ARE solvents that will disolve hard dried cosmoline. One is watch cleaning washing solution (though not generally cost effective). I used this on some H&R trigger parts and it came right off. As long as the cosmoline isn't rock hard though, any good solvent coupled with the hot car/ oven while wrapped in an absorbent paper/ cloth wrapping should eventually pull all of it out of the wood.

[Buckshot]

.............Down in the inletting can be a major PITA to get all the oil out. The endgrain just sucks it up. Sixty eight years of oil sponging is hard to undo over a couple days.

The parts about baking in the sun is the easiest. Wrap tightly in absorbant paper towels, wrap in a black plastic garbage bag and place it in the sun standing up. Once each day in the late afternoon, unwrap it and wipe it down with a rag soaked in paint thinner. Wrap it back up and let her cook some more.

If you let it go a couple days between wipedowns, it's no big deal. For the inletted areas I used the 'Whiting Method' mentioned, but with a twist. I used baby powder made into a paste with carb cleaner and smear it thickly into the corners and tight areas. Let it sit for an hour or so and then place a heat lamp over the now dry powder. Take care not to jostle it too hard. The thinned oil will wick into the powder turning it dark brown.

Sometimes there is actually a quite nice piece of walnut buried in there.

..............Buckshot

[trooperdan]

.............Down in the inletting can be a major PITA to get all the oil out. The endgrain just sucks it up. Sixty eight years of oil sponging is hard to undo over a couple days.

For the inletted areas I used the 'Whiting Method' mentioned, but with a twist. I used baby powder made into a paste with carb cleaner and smear it thickly into the corners and tight areas. Let it sit for an hour or so and then place a heat lamp over the now dry powder. Take care not to jostle it too hard. The thinned oil will wick into the powder turning it dark brown.

Sometimes there is actually a quite nice piece of walnut buried in there.

..............Buckshot


And I'll bet you shore do have some sweet-smelling stocks when you are done!

[gzig5]

On the inletting and end grain, I picked up a bottle of white powdered chalk that a carpenter would use in his chalk line. Mixed into a paste with either acetone or MEK and wait until it drys. Takes a few applications, but is amazing how much crud it pulls out.

[Bret4207]

A popular method on the milsurp boards has been to bag them up with something like kitty litter and leave them in a hot parked car. I haven't gone that far, myself. I've used paper as the absorbent material. I have Turks and a 98/22 that still ooze oil when they get hot years after I've had them. I don't worry about carrying them out on drizzly days.

FWIW- We had a series of supermarket fires in my state a few years back. Turns out when someone broke a bottle of vegetable oil they'd soak it up with kitty litter and toss the mess in the trash. Seems some combos react and start fires. Just a thought as I don't know if the oil in the stocks is organic or mineral. I'd use commercial oil soak if it was a worry.

[Ricochet]

Man, who'd've thought of that?! :eek:

[Nueces]

I guess we can expect Homeland Security to set up a Kitty Litter Control Board now...[smilie=1:

Mark

[JeffinNZ]

These boys have done lots of degreasing.

Search through http://www.surplusrifle.com/index.asp

[catboat]

I haven't done this yet, but I'm going to. I will try using bentonite.

I was in the paper chemicals business for 20+ years. One product we sold to paper mills was a chemical system used to retain fiber and fillers. It used a bentonite clay. It has the tremendous capacity to absorb organic materials, such as wood pitch. It will suck the oils off your hand. If you put a little bentonite slurry on the oil spot under your car in your garage, it will draw out the oil and lessen the oil spot (with repeat treatments)

Bentonite would be similar to chalk or whiting powder, or kitty litter with the exception that it would be MUCH more effective, as those other materials do not have anything near the oil absorbing capacity as bentonite clay. In this application, bentonite clearly outclasses those other products. FWIW, talc is used on paper machines as a pitch control additive. It is effective to a point, but works in a totally different mechanism than bentonite. Talc (similar to chalk) detackifies pitch (similar to rolling wet chewing gum in sand). It doesn't absorb pitch. Bentonite ABSORBS pitch and organic materials (such as oil). It's neat stuff.

Bentonite is safe for skin contact. It is one of the ingredients in calamine lotion (to dry out your skin for poison ivy-which is s different story. In short, calamine lotion WILL dry out skin, but it won't speed poison ivy cure time).

Bentonite is used for drilling muds in mining, and for waste water treatment. It is also used in wine making. Adding it to wine will help clarify the wine.

Bentonite is mined. One source that mines it is Southern Clays. It would cost well under $1/lb in powder form. Make a paste out of it (solids not critical, but something around 5-8% would be okay). Let it swell (hydrate, or absorb water, to make it more effective), then apply to the stock. A hot stock oozing oil/grease would be a great thing to apply it too.

The paste may work with some mineral spirits, but probably water is fine. The paste won't penetrate the wood, but it would suck out whatever oil is on the surface. If a mineral spirit/break cleaner type of liquid is used, it may draw more oil to the surface.

In a pinch, try calamine lotion, and let it dry on the stock. The pink color will sand off.

An added note, someone earlier posted: "I use the soak in the bathtub method with a liberal amount of tri sodium phosphate."

This material is a dispersant. I used to use materials like it on paper machines as a coating pigment dispersant. It is abbreviated as TSP or TSPP (trisodium polyphosphate). Dispersing the oil can assist in breaking molecules up (by reducing surface tension), but the dispersed material still needs to be removed. I would classify TSP as "slightly-mildly effective." Perhaps you can mix it with bentonite (with water or acetone), on a heated, oil-oozingstock. Apply, let dry, and remove dry biege powder on surface with damp rag. Reapply... "Wash, rinse, repeat."


Bentonite will dry to a biege powdery color, as it is a mixture of a solid and liquid (liquid being water). It woud be easily sanded, steel-wooled off, between applications.

[Char-Gar]

Bentonite and clay kitty litter are the same thing, just different grandulations.

[catboat]

You are correct; however, it is the much smaller particle size of refined bentonite (looks like powder, not barley-sized like kitty litter) that will provide the exponentially higher level of surface area for improved absorption, and more complete surface contact with the stock/oil interface.

[Char-Gar]

Catboat.. Bentonite comes in fairly large bags, but kitty litter can be bought in 5 lbs bag. Just put some kitty litter in a bag and beat the snot out of it with a mallet to get it smaller. Y0u can use the rest of the kitty litter for the top of your melt and get full usage out of the stuff.

[uscra112]

I've recommended this before, and here goes again.

If you have a dishwasher into which you can fit the stock, do so. Set the water temperature as high as you can go, and on the first pass use a full load of the POWDERED detergent.

The old-timer's method was to use boiling water, trisodium phosphate, and elbow grease.

Well, the powdered dishwasher detergent is, in fact, primarily trisodium phosphate, and the washer provides the hot water AND the elbow grease.

Has done a bang-up job for me, a good many times.

The stock WON'T get waterlogged - it will be dry enough to be sanding it in a couple of days at most, unless you live in some extremely humid tropical clime.

[WineMan]

Winemakers use Bentonite to add to white wine (and remove it with filtration) to adsorb soluble proteins and make the wine more stable to heat.

On a microscopic scale it is like a series of small plates that adsorb charged particles between them. We use something like 2-5 lbs of food grade bentonite to 1000 gallons of wine. If you need a source I will get one for you. I think there are even suppliers that sell in smaller quantities than 50 lbs for home winemakers.

wineman

[trooperdan]

Wineman, I might have a use for some bentonite; can you post a supplier?

[longbow]

I haven't tied this myself but have seen it referenced in several spots:

http://www.surplusrifle.com/shooting/refinish/index.asp

[JMax]

Wrap in paper towels, place in a black plastic bag and let sit on my deck, remove and replace paper towels daily. That worked great on my two CMP 03's when the arrived in cosmoline and has also worked on my M38 when I got it at Big 5. The sun & heat during SoCal summers drys out those greasy stocks. I also stuff paper towels into all nooks and crannies to soak up the cosmiline. Then go shooting and have fun after a couple of weeks.

[WineMan]

Got busy and have not checked this thread lately.

Try

Presque Isle Wine Cellars

9440 West Main Rd. (US RT 20)
North East, PA 16428
United States

Phone 814-725-1314
Alternate Phone (800) 488-7492
Fax 814-725-2092

Look under Additives>Fining Agents Bentonite is 6lb for $14

http://www.piwine.com/store/home.php?cat=261

Happy soaking.

[eka]

I use the Purple Power cleaner from Wal-Mart. I use it straight without diluting it. I spray it on and keep it wet, when it looks like it's starting to dry, I spray it some more. Every now and then I wipe it down and then spray it down again. It takes most of the stuff out. Then I bake it in the sun to finish it off. That will take care of about 90 to 95 percent of it. I usually have some splotches that are darn stubburn to get rid of. I steam them with a hot iron and a wet towel. Let everything dry out well and sand lightly. Then I finish with tung oil. It's amazing how well these old stocks will clean up with a little TLC.

[hunterldh]

I bought a long shallow polyethylene container that has a tight fitting snap-on lid at my local home improvement store. I believe it was designed to store stuff under a bed. I put my stock in there and brushed it liberally with paint stripper and sealed it up. In a couple of days I opened it up and brushed it all over again with more paint stripper. On the fifth day or so I applied more stripper and then wiped it down to bare wood with some old towels. All of the old finish and the years of oil and grease were gone. I let it dry for a day then I used my wifes iron to steam out a few dents. Some sanding and some tung oil brought the stock to a nice military finish. - Hunter

[Hackleback]

I use the Purple Power cleaner from Wal-Mart. I use it straighy without diluting it. I spray it on and keep it wet, when it looks like it's starting to dry, I spray it some more. Every now and then I wipe it down and then spray it down again. It takes most of the stuff out. Then I bake it in the sun to finish it off. That will take care of about 90 to 95 percent of it. I usually have some splotches that are darn stubburn to get rid of. I steam them with a hot iron and a wet towel. Let everything dry out well and sand lightly. Then I finish with tung oil. It's amazing how well these old stocks will clean up with a little TLC.

Note: wear gloves when using PP straight. If you get this on your hands w/o gloves, your skin will crack and peel off in a couple of days. [smilie=1:

[Dale53]

I sold a Garand to a friend and its stock was oil soaked. He took it to work and used a "Vapor Degreaser). It worked perfectly. Of course, it had to be "de-whiskered", stained and refinished. Made a VERY nice job of it.

Dale53

[smokemjoe]

I dont live where it gets that hot, I use Wal- Marts Purpel Cleaner, $6.00 a gal.Spary it on, Just done 3 M1 stocks, the oil runs right off.

[Nelsdou44]

I've used the "whiting" method others have mentioned but I make my paste using ordinary garden lime powder and denatured alcohol. Whip up a solution and paste it on the stock and the alcohol evaporates off. Put the stock in a warm place like the top of my garage and the cosmo slowly draws out into the lime, turning it into a soap-like product that you can simply brush off. Takes a lot of applications, but I believe slowly pulling the oil out minimizing damage to the wood. A final light scrubbing with alcohol and it's ready to prep for finishing.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v24/BubbaChevy/100_0437.jpg

Nels

[Denver]

Another source for bentonite would be your local water well driller

:-D

[handyrandyrc]

Can't believe nobody has mentioned the garbage can method. :)

Aluminum garbage can, with light boxes mounted inside. 100 watt light bulbs screwed into the fixtures, wired up to an electrical cord. Lay the can on its side, camp grill inside the can, lay your parts/stock on the grill. Plug in, put the lid on, and let cook.

Check every once in a while to wipe off oils that weep out. We were doing it every 10-15 minutes. Does no damage to original wood, and although it takes a while, it's quite a lot of fun.

Article on surplusrifle.com on how to build yourself a garbage can ez-bake oven.

[mauser1959]

I am new to this board . so please do not try to take my comments out of context. Kitty Litter and bentonite might not be the same thing ; though most kitty litter is bentonite. There are several differnt series in the bentonite clays , kitty litter is normally the calicium (non expanding variety) and bentonites used for drillers is an expanding (sodium bentonite) that seals ponds and is used for mineral for cows. Both forms of bentonites are part of the Montmorillonite clay series.

http://webmineral.com/data/Montmorillonite.shtml


That being said , I have an 91-30 that continues to leak cosmoline out of its stock after being stripped with kleen Cutter lacquer thinner a few years ago. So now I am getting ready to make a soaking bin out of PCV pipe and use unleaded gasoline to get to the cosmoline. I would not use any oven cleaners as they contain Lye and will not only degrease your wood but also cause it problems. There are several other chemical cleaners out there that might be workable ; however unless I was sure that the solvent does not destroy wood I would be very cautious; and that would leave out all water soluable cleaners. Just my .02¢ worth .

[Ricochet]

I learned from this thread that kitty litter might contain deodorizing oxidizers that could cause oil to burst into flame. :shock:

[testhop]

No. 2 son recently acquired a Turkish Mauser, $30.00 +DROS, no matching serial nos. Stock has been cleaned to bare wood,but cut off real short. Also came with a military stock that seems to have been soaked in oil. Oil starts to seep out of wood if left in hot car for a few hours. As a project I get to try to refinish the military stock and install on the action. Does anyone have any idea how I can get some or most of the oil out of the stock. After cleaning and glueing cracks I will probably use an oil finish. As of right now no one wants to touch the stock. Only idea I have had so far is to wrap it in paper towels and leave in car for a couple of days to bake out the surplus oil. Have considered putting synthentic stock except son thinks that actions should cost more than stocks. Any ideas to de-oil,degrease would be greatly appreciated. Jeff
jeff i would try a cleaner call SIMPLE GREEN it is for to remover of oil and grease
i beleave it willsolve your problum

[Steve E]

Over the years I have used this method on probably a dozen and I still have at least 10 of those, I strip all the metal off and lay the stock on the back porch on some newspaper, after heating it for an hour or so I spray it with carb cleaner(Wal-Mart @97 cents a can). Repeat these steps as needed, usually takes about 8 applications to get it complete. Wood can then be stained and finished as desired. Most Turks have some nice looking wood, the last one I did has some fantastic looking wood, it came to me looking as black as a lump of coal.

Steve E.......

[JMax]

Too many years ago I used gasoline soaks to get it out but the danger and cost of gas plus disposal returns me to my paper towels wrapped around the stock in a black garbage bag left in the sun. Easer disposal and the back deck doesn't burst in to flames.