Gentlemen (and Ladies). Hi, I'm brand new here, but a long time woodworker though I made a shift some years ago to blacksmithing and only do woodworking occasionally now days. Anyway, I am also fond of shooting sports (the kind that punches holes in paper, not animals) and also of restoring old firearms and rifle stocks to good working order. Recently over in firearms land, a trend has developed that is disturbing to me and I thought I would contact some active woodworkers (you all) and get their feedback and perhaps some specific links that might either confirm or refute the position I have taken on the subject. Here it is:
A lot of old rifle stocks, particularly old military arms like Mosin Nagants, K31s etc. get a lot of abuse over the years. They get dented up and the wood gets heavily soaked in gun oils, cosmoline and the like. Now when I attack the problem of restoring these stocks myself, I try to get as much of this crap out of the wood as possible, but using fairly benign techniques and materials, things like mineral spirits and perhaps a final rub down with a rag soaked in acetone.
On some of the firearms forums of late, there have been a lot of proponents of much harsher and more bizarre methods of dealing with this problem. One of them is to treat the stock repeatedly with conventional oven cleaner, which as I understand, is essentially sodium hydroxide, aka Lye. Now this method of oil removal seems very ill advised to me .... it just feels wrong and I'm quite certain it will damage the wood. Am I off base on this, or is this indeed a very bad thing to do to wood?
The other disturbing method that is being proposed is even more bizarre. People are taking their 50 and 60 year old rifle stocks and running them through repeated cycles in their dishwashers, with detergent and dry cycles included. Now I have seen pictures of stocks treated like this, and they do indeed come out fairly clean with dents removed or reduced after this treatment, but I cannot help but feel that this too is a very bad thing to do to a piece of wood.
Most of the stocks in question, in addition to the grease and oil that gets on them from storage, originally probably had just a raw or boiled linseed oil finish applied to them. The last application could be as long as 30 or 40 years in their past.
So what do you all think about these methods? Any links to specific INFORMED opinion on this subject would be greatly appreciated as well. I will likely link this discussion, if such takes place, to the forum on which I am most active, and on which I have been battling with the forces of darkness who are proponents of these methods. I will be most grateful for any help.
A lot of old rifle stocks, particularly old military arms like Mosin Nagants, K31s etc. get a lot of abuse over the years. They get dented up and the wood gets heavily soaked in gun oils, cosmoline and the like. Now when I attack the problem of restoring these stocks myself, I try to get as much of this crap out of the wood as possible, but using fairly benign techniques and materials, things like mineral spirits and perhaps a final rub down with a rag soaked in acetone.
On some of the firearms forums of late, there have been a lot of proponents of much harsher and more bizarre methods of dealing with this problem. One of them is to treat the stock repeatedly with conventional oven cleaner, which as I understand, is essentially sodium hydroxide, aka Lye. Now this method of oil removal seems very ill advised to me .... it just feels wrong and I'm quite certain it will damage the wood. Am I off base on this, or is this indeed a very bad thing to do to wood?
The other disturbing method that is being proposed is even more bizarre. People are taking their 50 and 60 year old rifle stocks and running them through repeated cycles in their dishwashers, with detergent and dry cycles included. Now I have seen pictures of stocks treated like this, and they do indeed come out fairly clean with dents removed or reduced after this treatment, but I cannot help but feel that this too is a very bad thing to do to a piece of wood.
Most of the stocks in question, in addition to the grease and oil that gets on them from storage, originally probably had just a raw or boiled linseed oil finish applied to them. The last application could be as long as 30 or 40 years in their past.
So what do you all think about these methods? Any links to specific INFORMED opinion on this subject would be greatly appreciated as well. I will likely link this discussion, if such takes place, to the forum on which I am most active, and on which I have been battling with the forces of darkness who are proponents of these methods. I will be most grateful for any help.