Lldub, Trichlorethelyne was probably the greatest thing for removing grease, dirt, oil, from metal parts, etc.. Also was used as a dry fly floatant. Also very bad for your health.
If you still use this stuff please use the appropriate respirator, or send it to me.
Don't worry, I was well aware of the danger and took precautions. But I haven't seen any of the stuff for 10 years now.
There is one thing that might be tried, which I think worked, but have gotten back to that project yet.
It uses the same container/hot pad idea from my post above. Heat is really the key, if you can do it safely. There's some stuff at home depot in the stripper section. I'm not at home and can't think of the name. But it's bluish and comes in a semi clear plastic 1 gal container. It appears to be water based. It's non-flameable.
I heated it up in my container until it boiled/simmered. Then I put the stock in it for maybe 10 minutes. It stripped the small amount of finish that was left on my test stock right off. And, seemed to do a good job degreasing the head. I checked to see if the inletting had expanded, and it did not appear to have done so as the action/tangs/etc seemed to fit right in. It was probably because the stock was in the "stuff" for only 10 minutes.
Again, use caution as it's a chemical and you don't want to breath hot chemicals. Also wear gloves, if you think you want to try something like this.
One side effect was that it seem to "dull" the tone of the wood. So as a last step I used a two part Teak wood cleaner. That involves wetting the wood but not "soaking" it. It restored the natural color and it appears everything is good to go. We'll see.
