Busted!
dfariswheel
I once asked a state forestry wood expert about using oven cleaner to clean wood. He had several Phd degrees on wood.
He gave me a long explanation about how the chemical damages the wood, and why it should never be used.
I also saw several valuable old rifles that were badly corroded by oven cleaner.
Remember, when you put something ON wood, it also goes IN the wood.
What goes IN, eventually leaches back OUT.
The oven cleaner leaches back out of the wood and attacks the metal, corroding it badly.
This may take some time, and the first sign of trouble is when you notice rust working it's way up from the wood line.
As I wrote, this is testable. A difference between science and pontification is leg work and testablilty.
I retrieved a 1945 Long Branch No 4 Mk1* that I cleaned with oven cleaner in 1993. This rifle was a complete glob of grease when I purchased it. This rifle is as close to NRA excellent as I have seen a Lee Enfield. The surface finish is extraordinary for a military rifle; I cannot tell if the finish is matte blue, or a very fine parkerization. Obviously some parts are blued: the clips on the handguards.
All the metal parts that could be removed were taken off, every inch of the wood was sprayed with oven cleaner, every inch coated with oven cleaner brushed with a toothbrush. Before anything dried, the oven cleaner was removed with a garden hose (“hose pipe” in Southern!) . It took several spray, brush, and hose treatments to get to clean wood. I made sure that I thoroughly washed the exterior with water. Might have finished with soap and water. Don't remember.
Please note that metal handguard clips were not removed from the handguard.
The next step was drying. I probably used a blow drier to dry the wood. I also probably went over the wood with a very fine steel wool, avoiding as much as possible stock markings. This is what I typically do, maybe I let the stock dry in the shade, this was 15 years ago.
After that was complete, every wood surface was coated with raw linseed oil. That linseed oil was the only wood protection applied.
The rifle was assembled, taken to the range, zeroed, cleaned, and put in the attic. It has been exposed to the vagaries of an attic envirnoment of hot, cold, moist, dry for 15 years.
I saw no evidence of “leeching” of oven cleaner. I saw no evidence of rust. I saw dried linseed oil on metal parts, I still saw some grease in the corners of the metal clips. And the copper rivets showed a little green corrosion. Which could have been there since 1945.
I conclude that the Forest Ranger, with several Ph’d’s in Woodlogy was totally mistaken. The wood is in great shape, the metal in great shape, but given eternity and beyond, the rifle, he, and all of us, will be ashes.
But until then, I am not worried about oven cleaner residue damaging this stock, or the metal parts.
Full length view
Lots of finish, no corrosion around receiver
No corrosion underneath handguards
No corrosion and the wood looks just fine
Inside of lower band, absolutely no evidence of corrosion due to "leeching"
Blued metal clips in fine shape
No evidence of corrosion around handguard clip
No corrosion around magazine well, trigger guard taken off later, no corrosion
