Help! I used oven cleaner on the stock

[Sledgecrowbar]

I finished a month-long refinish on a Mosin Nagant 91/30 (stop laughing, it looked really nice) and the first day I took it to the range, all the cosmoline I thought was gone bubbled my great finish.

The first time I stripped the stock, I used brake cleaner to get the original shellac off and it couldn't leave fast enough, but my refinish was considerably thicker. I did use real shellac.

I heat gunned it a little to see if I could get the cosmoline to start and it showed right up. I tried denatured alcohol first to strip it (used to dissolve the new shellac flakes), but the finish was being stubborn. I skipped the brake cleaner and went right to easy-off as I had seen it mentioned for stripping wood stocks. Even the oven cleaner took several applications. I don't know if shellac has gotten better, or 1936 Russian shellac is terrible, or my finish was just that thick. Probably all of the above.

I put the heat gun back on it, but no more cosmoline bubbled out. Does the lye suck it out as well as taking the finish off? Since it bleached the wood so bad, I just tried boiling it in water as a safer method, enough cosmoline still came out to give the water a good tint so I'll try another run of that.

Since the wood has been so dried out, would it be better for me to put some boiled linseed oil in it before I do the shellac again? The shellac sits on the surface, which helped the cosmoline push it out into bubbles I'm sure, but I want the wood to be healthy when I put this finish over it. Right now it looks kind of like a bone. Will shellac even stick to a BLO-treated stock?

I'm also wondering if giving up on shellac and going back to wood stain and polyurethane is the solution, I read that the cosmoline will actually sweat right through poly. I was really having a good time putting shellac on, it looks really, really good and it's the proper finish for the gun.

 

[Chawbaccer]

I would give it a vinegar wash to neutralize the lye. Then maybe a couple or more cycles in the dish washer, then sand and then use your favorite stain and then the shellac. I really don't think anybody has really gotten all the cosmo out of one of these guns, they just try to seal it in and then there always seems to be a break out.

 

[Lucifer_Sam]

Yeah, you'd want to do something to neutralize the lye, and oiling the wood is probably a good idea.

I dont know about all these methods with long exposure to hot water. Perhaps they work out fine, but I would be concerned about the stock warping or bulging in places.

If I were you I'd expose the stock to heat like an oven on about 175 for several hours, or wrap it in a black bag and put it someplace really hot outside to see if it still weeps much. You might need several cycles of that. It took about 36? hours or so of oven time to get my sks decosmed fairly well, places with end grain, like the wrist, are especially bad.

 

[jcwit]

Wrap it in an absorbent cloth or blanket. Place it in the rear window of your car and put the car in the sun with all the windows rolled up. This will bake most if not all of the oils out.

As far as shellac, toss it, use either Tru-Oil or MinWax Antique Oil Finish, and put it on very thin, a drop on your fingers and rubbed in. The more coats the shinney the finish. You should be able to do 2 coats a day.

 

[Reloadron]

I recently did a few M1 Garand stocks that had 50 years worth of dirt and oil in them. Sometimes I use Whiting Compound from Brownels but this time I used another readily available favorite. I used TSP (Tri Sodium Phosphate) available from any hardware / home improvement store like Lowes or Home Depot. I fill a deep sink with scalding hot water, add a cardboard container of TSP then place the wood in the solution.

The mess looks like this:



The stocks had already been "flipped" as my little deep sink is just so big and yes, that is a big rock holding them down. One is walnut and one is birch. Following soaking several hours they come out looking almost black and I set them out to dry. Nice sunny day and deck in work.

This is what we now have with the oils drawn out of the lumber:



Now I like Birchwood Casey "Tru Oil" as was mentioned. It can be had at most sporting goods stores like Gander Mountain for example in just bottles or complete kits including steel wool and sand paper. Tru Oil amounts to raw linseed oil with a drying agent tossed in. You can apply the oil to the wood or stain the wood first and here I like the Min Wax products as were mentioned. I come home from work, and oil the wood one coat per day allowing it to dry. Using 0000 steel wool over and over and make sure all grit is removed! Eventually a beautiful oil finish will begin to show.

They now look like this:



Working stocks with oil is all about patience and can't be rushed. Gentle sanding and steel wool work over and over between coats of oil which I apply using my fingers. The following is a finished stock set. Could have been better but not that shabby.

Finished:



That is how I would go about it. Experiment, make some mistakes and learn.

Ron

 

[stan rose]

That M1 stock came out very nice.

 

[colonelhogan44]

A little stain would have made those stocks look even more incredible!

 

[michaelbsc]

I think you're misunderstanding what's happening with lye.

First, it isn't exactly cosmoline like American cosmoline. It's a grease mixture that's "cosmoline like" in consistency. Some old guys in Russia probably know what's in it, but I don't think any one in the US knows for sure. If someone does let us know. I'm interested.

Now, remember how Great Grandma used to make lye soap? She would boil lard with lye, and you get soap.

Slaughter houses do exactly the same thing to clean processing machinery every night. The equipment is coated with animal fat from the slaughter process, and they mix "caustic" in their cleaning water. This is nothing but dissolved lye, and it forms soap with the process fats to clean the equipment.

On your rifle the lye mixed with the greasy preservative makes soap and wrecks your finishing effort. Or maybe it really is just more grease bubbling out.

How much grease is trapped in the wood? I don't know. Probably a lot. And if you get it all out the stock will probably split. But it does sound like you've got a good start toward a good raw stock.

Anyway, the lye isn't going to "suck it out" either. It will only react with what's at the surface or just under it.

So while the oven cleaner might have gotten a good chunk of the preservative to begin with, it probably isn't great to continue with. This just thinking about it from a chemical perspective.

All I did on mine was the "bag in the sunshine" trick. But I wasn't trying to refinish the stock to make it look nice either. So I can't tell you the best course of action for that. I have no experience. Frankly mine still look rough, but over time they aren't greasy now.

The other guys who have done the refinish obviously know more about that than I do. Hope I've been helpful about the lye.

 

[Reloadron]

A little stain would have made those stocks look even more incredible!

Yeah, but I wanted the lighter look with the birch. Note when drying the walnut was much darker. I also like the Min Wax products for stain as well as tongue oil.

Ron

 

[joustin]

Steam works wonders once the shellac is off.

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[Reloadron]

Steam works wonders once the shellac is off.

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Good point. I like using a steam iron to life small dings and dents in wood stocks.

Ron