Cosmoline removal from wood?

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XenopusTex

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I've been working through the collection of weaponry that I inherited, and came to a Yugo 8mm Mauser clone and an SKS that not only had cosmoline in the action, but apparently on the wood furniture too. Various things will get it off/out of metal, but trying to figure out what to use on the wood. Nothing like handling the stock and getting that greasy and oily smelling stuff all over your hands. I swear, wherever they had been stored the people must have just shoved them into tubs of the stuff.
 
Yes, it may well have been coated in the stuff.

Many ways out there to do it, all have various risks to the wood, time, and $$.

I like to put them in a trash bag and put them in the trunk of a car in the heat or out in the sun to cook the grease out of the stock. Will not get all of it out but most of it and unless you expose it to too much heat for too long you won't damage the stock. Chemicals and kitty litter can be used also.

Many opinions out there, read up before you pick a path. Most of all, don't make things worse. If you are thinking of selling them I would leave them be.
 
In the summer, I just put them out in the sun on a warm day, and wipe them down with a paper towel every hr or so.

It's harder in the winter. I just did a cosmoline removal on a Yugo mauser (those aren't just "clones" BTW, they are likely the M48, which are great guns). I use a heat gun to work the cosmo out, then wipe it down. It works well, so long as you are patient. If you get impatient, you will over heat the wood. When/if the cosmo starts smoking, you are too hot, and need to move to a different area.

Another winter method is putting the stocks and hand guards in a steel trash can with a heat lamp, (like the kind you use for chickens). Just wipe it down every hr or so.

Good luck, I love old rifles. I believe most of the Yugo M48s used teak wood for the stock and hand guard. Very good wood, and fairly oil resistant, so the cosmo comes out pretty nice.

If you just plan to sell, leave them in the cosmo.
 
Had been reading around at various options.

I think they are a couple of projects that are going to have to wait until summer. I live in the Far North (tm), and well, it won't be warm enough outside to do anything to Cosmoline outside other than turn it into a rock-hard mass for some time. Might as well leave the Cosmoline as-is on the rest of the piece too then. Enough Cosmoline in the SKS that the bolt won't even slam forward, it just sort of acts like it's pushing against a hydraulic damper. So much for "slamfire" :)

Have seen what can happen to firearms that get thoroughly degreased and not oiled sufficiently. Got a Bulldog Pug with rust pock-marks on it, and a rusty Ruger Security-Six that I've been trying to clean up.

No, not thinking of selling the rifles. I've come to one conclusion: it is better to have than to not have. Even for ones that aren't "perfect" (i.e. internal barrel scratches or minor pitting from cleaning issues).
 
Oh, you can use your wife's blow-dryer if you don't have a heat gun, so long as it has a high heat setting... heck, a blow dryer would probably be safer. A heat gun will over dry, or even burn the wood if you aren't careful.
 
During the summer a black trash bag placed in direct sun will draw the stuff off the wood and it will run down into the bag. Unfortunately this will not work during December in Ohio or other cold places. This is where a blow drier used on hair works well, not a heat gun unless you want a scorched roasted stock. After the stock has given up so much oil and cosmoline the wood can be soaked for awhile in scalding hot water mixed with TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate)

Stocks%20Sink%201.png

Yes, a rock to hold them down. The Scotch Brite is for an occasional scrub of the wood. About every 30 min for a few hours total. The TSP will draw the years of oil and dirt out of the stocks. Allow the wood to dry in the hot sun or overnight in front of a heater vent (Winter).

Start working on a nice oil finish of your choice, boiled linseed oil, tung oil or something like Birchwood Casey Tru-oil. Whatever trips your trigger.

Stocks%203.png

Finally put the rifle together.

Stocks%204.png

The trick is drawing the oils out of the wood once the surface stuff has been wiped down.

Brownell's Old Fashion Whiting is another good way to draw the grease and oil out of the wood.

Ron
 
Might have to try the hair dryer approach. Up in North Dakota, winter time isn't conducive to getting stuff to flow outside. Of course, also don't have anywhere to shoot them for a while even if I did get them cleaned up. Local indoor range can't handle center fire rifles. And, by the time I get out of the office, it's dark and pretty cold, so outdoors is out.
 
I remember when the go-to clean up solutions where Easy-Off and Purple Power to draw the stuff out of the wood

I swear, wherever they had been stored the people must have just shoved them into tubs of the stuff.
Click to expand...
Actually the common practice was to just dip the whole gun into a vat before laying them into a crate. Common clean up solution was kerosene
 
Heat gun has already been mentioned. After that + wiping loose grease off, dishwasher. It may sound brutal, but I've found it to be a great way to remove any and all cosmoline and old, dark BLS from wooden stocks.
 
hang it butt end up from something in a very hot, preferably sunny place. Very hot as in 100F. If the sun is shining on it, put it on something that swivels like a fishing lead or something. The Cosmoline will melt and work its way down. The idea of buttstock up is to get the big thick sections vacated of the stuff and let it drip out the thin sections. I did this after a fashion on a Mosin that has been cleaned but was still full of it. I did it on a couple of very hot July days and the stuff was dripping after about an hour.
 
To anyone using what I suggested in post #7. When the wood dries do not rush things or try to "bake" the wood. This can result in the wood splitting. Let the wood dry slow and natural, do not shove a stock in an oven if you soak it and TSP scrub it. :)

Ron
 
I've noticed no one has mentioned using house hold bleach, to get the crud and cosmoline off a rifle stock. I've used that in the past with great results, however, before refinishing you do have to wait for the bleach to dry needless to say. Further it really doesn't make the stock any lighter in color, and definitely gets the cpsmoline off with out really having to rub too much.
 
Reloadron said:
To anyone using what I suggested in post #7. When the wood dries do not rush things or try to "bake" the wood. This can result in the wood splitting. Let the wood dry slow and natural, do not shove a stock in an oven if you soak it and TSP scrub it. :)

Ron
Click to expand...
I have never used TSP but I am not surprised that it does a good job of cleaning oily/greasy/filthy stock-wood (I have seen hotwater+TSP remove enamel paint :eek:).

I have on many occasions used a hot water + Dawn bath to clean such stock-wood. I have also used a mineral spirits bath & scrub-a-dub.

Anyone who is thinking about using the hot-water-bath cleaning method should be aware that stock-wood so treated may split and/or warp.

In my experience, thin or long/thin pieces seem to be more likely to suffer this side-effect.
 
Heat and soap and solvent (kerosene).

Friend took a bunch of SKSs to the carwash and hosed them down with hot soapy water.

M
 
I used spray on oven cleaner. You have to wear rubber gloves, it is best to wear eye protection and a bib. I would strip all the metal I could off the rifle. I would spray oven cleaner on the big wood sections, areas that had permanently mounted metal, I would use a toothbrush saturated in the stuff. I used the tooth brush to scrub the wood surface.

I had a garden hose near by, washed the stock down frequently. Do not let the oven cleaner dry on the surface as the wood will be stained.

Using heat to dry a stock is a bad idea, I had one crack after sticking it in a car in the summer sun. I did use hair dryers on the wood surface. Overall it is just best to wipe it down and let it dry.

After the stock dries, use steel wool to smooth out the raised surfaces and then oil. I used Lindseed oil.
 
Mineral spirits is and always has been the best degreaser for metal or wood. Cosmoline(not that the Warsaw Pact used it) is just thick petroleum jelly. No heat, flammable liquids or sunshine is required.
Easy-Off is caustic and will chemically burn wood.
 
I damaged the stock on my Mosin by using a heat gun so I would not recommend that.

Personally, if I had it to do over again, I would put it away until June or July and let the sun take care of it for me.

No matter the method I have used, there always seems to be a residue of the stuff that just won't go away. I have found that a couple of coats of simple Polyurethane kind of seal the rest in so the stock doesn't have that oily feel to it.
 
Reloadron said:
During the summer a black trash bag placed in direct sun will draw the stuff off the wood and it will run down into the bag. Unfortunately this will not work during December in Ohio or other cold places. This is where a blow drier used on hair works well, not a heat gun unless you want a scorched roasted stock. After the stock has given up so much oil and cosmoline the wood can be soaked for awhile in scalding hot water mixed with TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate)

Stocks%20Sink%201.png

Yes, a rock to hold them down. The Scotch Brite is for an occasional scrub of the wood. About every 30 min for a few hours total. The TSP will draw the years of oil and dirt out of the stocks. Allow the wood to dry in the hot sun or overnight in front of a heater vent (Winter).

Start working on a nice oil finish of your choice, boiled linseed oil, tung oil or something like Birchwood Casey Tru-oil. Whatever trips your trigger.

Stocks%203.png

Finally put the rifle together.

Stocks%204.png

The trick is drawing the oils out of the wood once the surface stuff has been wiped down.

Brownell's Old Fashion Whiting is another good way to draw the grease and oil out of the wood.

Ron
Click to expand...
Ron,
I tried the TSP thing last night. Got nice hot water, added the tsp, had my rock. Scrubbed it all down with a scotch-brite pad several times, even changed out the water & tsp when it got brown.

It still left lots and lots of cosmo. I looked closer at the TSP I grabbed at Walmart. It wasn't real TSP! It was imitation TSP. LOL !!

I guess you need the real stuff! I just went ahead and used heat, but I will try that TSP method some other day. I can't believe how clean it got your stocks.

Your finished rifle looks amazing BTW!
 
Use of oven cleaner in controversial - some say the chemicals will damage the wood fibers, but I remember reading that the Army refinished stocks on a production basis by dipping them in hot lye, drying them, and then dipping them in hot linseed or tung oil. (I have no info on temperatures, times, or chemical concentrations.)

I've processed a couple of Garand stocks by using the potscrubber cycle in my dishwasher and regular dishwashing detergent, getting excellent results. If you try this method and want to preserve the cartouches, put a piece of duct tape over them. This will raise dents and the grain, so you'll have to do a little sanding by hand. (Don't round off all the edges when you sand.)

DO NOT uses the dishwasher's "dry" cycle!! Take the stocks out of the dishwasher as soon as the rinse cycle completes, look them over, and then wrap them in plastic bags for a couple of days - this slows the drying cycle and makes the wood less likely to warp. Then let them dry in the air for a couple more days before you start refinishing.
 
Generally use a spray krudcutter type for initial grunge cleaning, then odorless mineral spirits. If I have grunge mixed with varnish, poly, paint, etc. then I use Soygel which is an organic odorless finish remover made from soybean oil after the initial cleanup of grit, dirt, etc. Soygel curiously seems to pull out some of the cosmolene as well.

In an extreme case, a 1916 Guardia Mauser, I used whiting powder (basically baking soda) with acetone and repeated it. In that case, oil and cosmolene had softened the wood fibers so removal was absolutely necessary to preserve the stock. Water used sparingly to clean with something like dawn etc. is okay for initial cleaning but dunking etc. and letting it soak in risks warping the stock.
 
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