doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Oil soaked forearm removal

Picked up a early Parker GH in a 16 bore.Stocks in good shape but the forarm is dark.What the best process to pull some of the oil out.Thanks

1. Acetone soak. Place forend in a small tub, submerge it in acetone, leave it for a few days, a week, etc.

2. Whiting powder

3. Citri strip. Boil water with a few drops of dawn dish soap, place forend in water for around 5 minutes. Pull it out. Let it air dry for around 10 days to two weeks. If there�s still excess oil, use whiting powder or soak in acetone. This method is ideal if your planning on refinishing the forend. It automatically whiskers, raises dents, pulls dirt and oil from the wood, etc.

It could be grime from holding it after all these years. What I would do is try cleaning it with soap and water first, you might be amazed.

Thanks guys keep them coming.

Acetone, heat and whiting

Ammonia and cold tap water. A buddy degreased a heavily oil soaked stock with this solution in under an hour. The amount of oil on top of the water was unreal and had I not seen it myself I would not have believed it. More effective than acetone. He said he got this from one of the old Brownells Gunsmith Kinks books.

I have one that is just causing me major issues, this looks like a great idea. How does it work? Do you submerge the stock? Float it? Ammonia to water concentration? Any insight would be great!

Does this use regular Household ammonia or does it require the "Strong" ammonia.

I like the acetone method. But it is a lot easier to do in an oven roasting bag. Although they are plastic, they are proof against acetone, and it is easier to submerse the piece and use a minimum of acetone at the same time.

I've been an advocate of starting with absorbent materials such as kitty litter, whiting, or toilet paper using gentle heat to bring the bulk of the oil to the surface after first cleaning off any surface grunge with Dawn dish detergent. You can put the wood in a container of kitty litter and leave it in a vehicle parked in the sun for a week as a free long term heating source. I now try to minimize the use of strong organic solvents like acetone or lacquer thinner because wood is composed primarily of cellulose and lignin, and these solvents will break down those components of the wood. Doing nothing will also damage the wood, so you must get out what you can without causing more damage with long harsh organic solvent soaks.

After using the absorbent material to get most of the oil, I proceed to about a 50-50 solution of household ammonia and water. Strong ammonia should be diluted more. Ammonia will saponify both gun and skin oils, i.e., turn it into a water soluble soap. This must then be thoroughly rinsed off because ammonia will damage wood too. A soft scrub brush will help get out embedded grunge and dirt in the pores and in the checkering. After drying, if more oil needs removed, you can then soak in denatured alcohol before proceeding to the acetone or lacquer thinner, keeping those soaks short. This method also means there is much less oil to contaminate the more expensive solvents.

I don't believe you can ever get all of the oil out of a heavily oiled stock, and it will continue to migrate to the surface for months after cleaning. So it is best to do any glue repairs or finishing as soon as the wood is dry.