Cosmoline cleaning vs finish damage

[little joe]

Read all the threads, online researched and did not see this question answered.

Would the hot water method of cosmoline removal "harm" the parkerizing on a refurbished Remington 1903 rifle in anyway.

Never had to clean cosmoline before and trying not to bugger up my rifle......

Thanks for your thoughts and experiences.....Joe

 

[BurningSaviour]

I typically use a fabric steamer for removing cosmoline. You can use hot water just fine, but you really don't want to get the furniture water logged. It's going to be a time consuming process, regardless.
http://www.surplusrifle.com is the site dedicated just to these sorts of things. They have excellent resources there, and more methods of cosmoline removal than you can shake a stick at.

 

[mannac]

The best way to remove cosmoline is with regular gun cleaning solvents or automatic transmission fluid. I know your typical solvents will hurt the finish, but I've heard of people soaking Mosins in ATF to remove the cosmoline out of the wood. I haven't tried this with mine though.

 

[MarineOne]

Dawn dish washing soap and hot water won't hurt the metal at all.



Kris

 

[hadmanysons]

Mineral Spirits. Cleaned out my AK like a champ. Cheap too. Half gallon at walmart is like 5 bucks