How best to deal with cosmoline in a stock

R

RampantAndroid

New member
Hi all,

I posted earlier about an M1 Garand I got, and I'm posting again because I'm STILL dealing with cosmoline in the stock. I had cooked a lot out, and then stripped the stock of its finish/stain...but ended up with some dark spots.

A second attempt to strip it left the dark spots there, so I went back to heating the stock to get the cosmoline to come out. And more IS coming out, but not from where the dark spots are. I've had this thing baking for a combined total of 10 hours or so, and every 30 minutes I wipe cosmoline off it, with my paper towels turning brown. When can I be done wit this?

How do I deal with dark spots in the wood - when I apply tung oil, will these still be visible?

Thanks!
 
Hmmm...

Talk about historical significance :eek: Kinda makes me want a Garrand, and to stay away at the same time. Spirits, man... Spirits.
 
Oven cleaner....seriously, take all the hardware off the wood and spray the stock with Oven Cleaner, it will suck everything out the wood. Kills parasites too.
 
Oven cleaner is a bit harsh. If you use it don't leave it on the wood very long. The lye attacks the wood fiber.

My first choice is Citrastrip, I've used Simple Green. Foaming tile cleaners work pretty good on the dark spots. Those hand held steam cleaners you see for household clean up can do wonders on stains and lifting dents and dings.

Surplusrifle.com has a stock care section, look for posts by candyman. He is the best at restoring mil-surp wood I have seen.

Are you going to use Tung oil or BLO? If BLO you can make a 50/50 mix of BLO and Turpentine, use this mix with some 0000 steel wool for finial cleanup.
 
Thanks all for the info.

I've been baking the gun to get more out and it just keeps coming. That, and the first time I tried this a week and a half ago, the end result was me being out of work sick for the better part of a week with a headache, nausea and whatnot (these symptoms fit what is listed on the cosmoline MSDS.) I felt better (past tense) and having started up the heating process again, wearing a respirator with chemical filters I'm feeling sick AGAIN.

I'm going to just see about shipping this thing off to DGR Guns and letting them fix this. However, my question now becomes: How does shipping work? I'm in WA: DGR Guns holds an FFL license and says I can ship directly to them. Do I just overnight this with UPS (notifying them it's a rifle in writing?) and then they ship it back to me?

Or must I do this all through an FFL in my state?

Thanks all, I appreciate the info, but this is just too much for me to deal with. In future, I think I'm going to avoid all guns involving cosmoline, or buy it knowing I'll have to send it out to be restored. :)
 
Urgh, nevermind, DGR's response to me:

I'm sorry to say, but your old stock with the cosmoline/grease/oil is no longer worth keeping on the rifle. You will never get it all out and it will affect accuracy. I recommend one of our package deals. A mini package deal is good if you don't need a new barrel. Those are listed below the Complete package that include a new barrel.
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Wrap the stock in newspaper, put in a black trash bag, put on dashboard of closed car in the sun. Change newspapers daily.

It sounds silly but I got cups of cosmoline out of my SKS stock using this method even after it stopped excreting cosmo using steam and plain sunlight.
 
I've had good luck with washing the stock with Formby's Furniture Refinisher. I remove all the metal parts from the stock. I pour the refinisher into a pan, set the butt of the stock in the pan and using fine steel wool, rub the refinisher over the stock. When the refinisher in the pan gets dark, I dump it and start again with clean. Takes a while, but the wood usually really cleans up nice.
 
Rampart reference your respirator. Depending on the type you are using there are over two dozen different cartridges available for handling vapors. Have you fit tested? Is it a full face respirator or half face? A general purpose organic filter with a prefilter should do the trick.

If you want to PM me I may be able to advise you on the respirator porblem.

You could also have a skin absorbtion problem.

As to cleaning the stains off a vintage M-1. I have never attempted to totally remove the stains. I think it lends character to the rifle and lends an authinticity to the rifle.

My M-1's serial # is 22,XXX
 
Oven cleaner, but make sure to take normal safety precautions when using that stuff. In fact, do it outside, wear safety glasses, and immediately wash off any that gets on exposed skin. Like someone above said, it will attacked the wood, so be diligent. I did several CMP 03 years ago this way, and they came out great. It usually takes more than one cleaning though.
 
PLEASE!! Don't use oven cleaner!! Go to Wal-Mart, head to the paint section, and buy a can of Citristrip. It's cheap ($5 or so), it's meant for woodwork, and will not harm the wood in any way, and it's ridiculously easy to use.

1. Spray it on the wood
2. Wait an hour or so (The longer it's on, the deeper it goes)
3. Use paper towels to wipe off as much as you can
4. Use Denatured Alcohol and a soft bristled brush (old toothbrush will suffice) to finish scrubbing off the Citristrip

it's so easy to use, it smells nice, and as long as you wash your hands fairly quickly, will not harm you or the wood.
 
I had an issue getting the cosmo out of an AK stock that I bough a few months back.

I'm into relics so I'm used to dealing with cosmo but let me tell you. I've never seen anything like the amount of cosmoline on that thing.

I had planned on strippiing and sanding it anyway but was trying to get the majority of it off first and it just wasn't happening. What I eneded up doing was boiling a big pot of water and dropping the entire stock in for maybe 30 seconds... pull out let dry and cool for a miniute and it would all come to the surface. then strip off all the cosmo I could.

Had to repeat about 6-7 times before it finally gave out all of that nasty crap out of the wood. A lot of work but it came out great and didn't hurt the wood at all.
 
Oven cleaner, use it heavily and let it bubble up for an hour or so, then wash off with hot water. Then wash again with hot water and Murphy's Oil Soap, rinse well and let dry completely.

Scotch pad the wood hairs off, or rub lightly with fine sand paper (again, to just get the wood hair off). Wipe down with denatured alcohol, let dry. Either dip entire stock in BLO (a quick submersion) or wipe down with BLO, let dry over night. Rub stock with Scotch pad or 00 steel wool. Repeat a couple, three times, then finish with Tung Oil (sometimes I like a couple of coats) or just a good stock wax (even after the Tung Oil).

Don't care what anyone else says, been doing this for almost fifty years, nothing works better than the oven cleaner. Gets the crude out of your oven, why not your gun stock? Always use the most toxic stuff around, just be careful...and you also get the benefit of getting the "greenies' undies all in a bind. There is a reason professionals use the stuff!

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