A product worth bragging about

[BombthePeasants]

I have been stripping and refinishing an M1 Carbine stock, and on my previous CMP purchases, I used Klean-strip "Strip-X" (I forget the exact name, but that is close enough) to strip the cosmoline/oils from the wood. That stuff was very very good, but a little labor intensive, and I found that it required me washing the wood w/ water, and then drying, meaning my cartouches woudl begin to fade alarmingly quickly. So, on this new rifle, I needed to go get another stripping agent. So at Wal-Mart, I found this stuff in a spray can:

http://citristrip.com/

The aerosol can was cheap, easy to use, and it smelled great! And, one application was sufficient to take off 50 years of some sort of shellac that the Bavarian Forestry Police had put on my Carbine. After I had stripped it using this stuff, I wiped off the remnants w/ paper towels, scrubbed it thoroughly w/ steel wool and Denatured Alcohol, and then let it dry for one day. Here in Texas, as hot as it is, it dried VERY thoroughly. And after several applications of Boiled Linseed Oil (repeated applications of thin coats using a clean strip of cotton cloth), it looks like a new stock again.

THIS STUFF WORKS, and it's very simple to use. I highly recommend it for all your stripping needs. So you can rub down your wood with oil.

THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!

 

[brickeyee]

one application was sufficient to take off 50 years of some sort of shellac

Far more likely to be a varnish.

Shellac strips with denatured alcohol.

Cured varnish does not have a 'solvent' per se, the strippers break the varnish down chemically.
It will not harden to a film again.

 

[Scorch]

Citristrip is great stuff, I use it all the time to strip stocks for refinishing.

 

[BombthePeasants]

WELL whatever it was, it was shiny, and was really laid on thick.

 

[Evan Thomas]

Far more likely to be a varnish.

Shellac strips with denatured alcohol.

Alcohol is the solvent for shellac -- used to dissolve it so you can apply it. But you don't have to use alcohol to strip it.... you can use methylene chloride if you like the idea of brain damage and liver cancer, or Citristrip, which does a much faster job than going at the surface with denatured alcohol -- and Citristrip is quite a bit safer to use than alcohol (or pretty well anything else, for that matter).

 

[Unclenick]

Good stuff, and available at Lowe's in non-aerosol containers last time I got some (for brushing on).

 

[brickeyee]

Citristrip is quite a bit safer to use than alcohol

Except it contains water, not a desirable thing on wood.

Denature alcohol is ethyl alcohol (the stuff you drink) denatured by adding any one of a number of things to make it unsuitable for consumption.

Adding a few percent methyl alcohol (wood alcohol) is a very common denature.

It is not any more dangerous than vodka.

The risk with methylene chloride is how your body metabolizes any you breath on or absorb through your skin.

It is turned into carbon monoxide in the body and ties up the hemoglobin you use to move oxygen around.
If you have ANY cardiac issues it can result in cardiac arrest.

 

[cheezhed]

I have had a lot of luck with orange glow for cleaning wood stocks. It takes off dirt and cosmo and smells pretty good.