doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Oil in a stock.

This maybe apostacy but I use oven cleaner with a cold water rinse to avoid raising the grain of the wood. The lye in the oven cleaner really gets the oil out. Takes about 10 minutes. Repeat if necessary.

I use two 9" metal cylinders I found at the scrap yard, I think they were fire extinguishers. I just cut them so they're tall enough to submerge a butt stock. Wire mesh bent to fit tightly inside holds the wood under the surface. Heavy plastic held by large rubber bands covers the tanks. You don't needs as much liquids with a tall, narrower tank.

The metal cylinders are a good solution. I have been looking for a big enough glass jar for a while. Something with a 6" opening and tall enough. Not an easy find.

Try oval metal air conditioning ducts. You can solder a base on it and stand it up. Probably available at Home Depot but certainly at a heating and air conditioning supply.

I've developed a relationship with my local scrap yard. It's amazing what you can think up with a little imagination and a willingness to do a little fabrication. I've sourced all the materials for my tanks, crucibles, tongs, exhaust hoods, hangers, etc. from there.

I always start with cleaners such as Dawn detergent, Murphy's Oil Soap, and then household ammonia washes to remove crud and saponify old gun and skin oils. Ammonia should be thoroughly rinsed and neutralized. Wood should not be given prolonged soaks in ammonia solutions. Then I proceed to heat and absorbent materials such as kitty litter, following up with solvents if necessary. The vacuum sealing and placing the stock in a warm area sounds interesting, but I think it would work better if you wrapped the wood in paper towels or other absorbent material before placing it under vacuum. Simply placing the wood in a vacuum bag doesn't give the oil anywhere to go.

Some here seem to think that prolonged repeated soakings in harsh organic solvent will not do any damage to the cellulose and lignin structure of wood. I think that is ridiculous, and prefer to minimize the exposure to harsher solvents such as acetone or lacquer thinner. You need to strike a balance between removing gun oils that will destroy the wood over time, and removing the bulk of those oils. For that reason, I try to get most of the oil out by using less destructive methods, and minimize the use of organic solvents. Here's a paper on the effects of various cleaning methods on archeological wood.

http://www.ijcs.uaic.ro/public/IJCS-13-16-Hamed.pdf

I don't really think gravity will have all that much effect on oil absorbed into wood. Sure, some may drip out of a heavily oiled stock head when heated, but heating will bring oil to the surface no matter what position the stock is in.

Vacuum in the form of bagging or otherwise is used to drive liquids into the wood in boat building, stabilising wood with cyanoacrylic (spell?) and epoxies. It draws out the air from the material and draws the liquid in. Therefore it might not be effecive in removing oil.

I still use whiting powder coatings.
It's not as fast as some of the solvent soaks, but it's more efficient.
I've done the soakings and have had deep down oil still weep to the surface many days or even weeks later.

OvenCleaner (lye) works to remove surface and just under the surface grease and oil by turning it to soap. But won't draw that deep oil that's been pulled down into the wood along the grain. Turns wood funny colors too sometimes but that can be revearsed with a bath of oxalic acid (wood bleach). The latter will not remove any additional oil though.

I use alcohol to mix up the whiting paste instead of the often advised acetone. Not so much for any reason of safety or better results, it's just that the coating will be on there for a few days to a week anyway.
The alcohol or acetone used to mix it up and apply is long gone in a few seconds or minutes after applying and has little to do with it's effectiveness. You could use water for that matter, it's purpose is to just get a coating of the powder onto the wood and dry to a hard shell on it..

Alcohol evaporates slower and allows me to get the coating onto the wood easier w/o it drying up so quickly that's all. Using acetone isn't going to draw any more oil out of the center of the stock for you as it's evaporated in a few seconds of being brushed on.

Yes it's slow, but it works w/ no damage to the wood. Several coatings are usually necessary. Have some other work to do and let it set in the corner and forget about it and do it's thing.

Wear a mask when brushing the old dusty coating(s) off.
Wash w/plain water the last coating after brushing. A little of the whiting will be down in the grain but will disappear during the refinishing process.

Likewise. I get mine from Advance Auto Parts. They sell gallons of it, and there's a 20% off coupon code that always works to lower the price (P20).

The same concept is used when marinating meat. Marinade in a vacuum bag penetrates much deeper and faster.

Regards
Ken