Do you think the diff between water and alcohol as the liquid in the paste will matter any?
Thanks for input.
No not really.
The solvent in the whiting paste is just to allow it to be applied to the wood and form a shell clinging to it after the solvent, what ever it may be, evaporates.
What ever works easiest for you to get the stuff onto the wood is what's the best (for you). It evaporates and is then of no issue wether the oil is drawn from the wood and absorbed or not.
Acetone evaporates in a few seconds, Alchohol in a minute or so,, and water in a few minutes. But they all go away leaving the shell of Whiting which is what you want.
Oil can go right through the wood from one side to the other even in the thickest areas of the stock like behind the grip area if the grain is just right.
I had a somewhat plain piece of Euro walnut on a Belgian 410 SxS that was just soaked with oil and one area that started in the checkering pattern on the rt side and came through mid way down the stock on the left side as a small swirl of pattern. That area of wood grain was like a tunnel of oil from one side to the other.
That one took a long time to draw it all out.
When you think it's all done,,just let the stock set by itself for a few days or a week. If there's any more in there,,it'll come out and show itself.
Sometimes very easy to see on the surface. Other times only small dark pinpoints of oil on the surface. But it'll still be there to go after again.
It's good to have other work to do while an armfull of old wood is hanging around the shop or garage being de-oiled.
That way you have a tendency to leave them hang longer, forget about them, let the stuff work and not concentrate on them as much hoping for quick results.
...All this ranks very poorly as a spectator sport.
