how to get cosmoline out of mauser stock

[jon1996]

hello,
i have a mauser that has a real dark stock because of the cosmoline that has soaked in it, how can i go about getting it out of it thanks,
jon

 

[P95Carry]

Ever notice how in the sun ... a cosmo laden stock ''sweats''?? Well .. you can ''bleed'' a lot of that stuff out by judicious use of a hot air gun .. set on medium rather than high. Keep wiping off what shows with kitchen paper.

Once most has stopped coming out then you can degrease further. Opinion varies on this but ... acetone will work .. tho it's not kind to skin .... and also even alcohol will do. Other grease cutting solvents too can be tried .. but useful on any given stock to do a test area.

Once wood is purged well enough then sandpaper etc .. can be used to get a better surface ... and local heat with an iron can help pull out dings a bit.

Finish finally with boiled linseed ........ and leave long enough to oxidise after removing excess.

People have many methods ... this is just my own 2c.

 

[Third_Rail]

Solid directions.... I've done that twice now. (almost word for word, too!)

 

[BamBam-31]

I usually soak my cosmoline-caked milsurp stocks in hot water and Purple Power. Scrub a little bit with brillo-pad, rinse with hot water. Let dry overnight. Then follow with several coats of BLO. Usually turns out real nice.

 

[Ohen Cepel]

Great advice has been given.

Only thing I would add is to set the stock in the sun on a hot day. It will cook much of the stuff out and all you need to do it wipe and turn it from time to time. Not as labor intensive, will still need to other steps but I think it shortens them some.

I've also seen them set next to the fireplace for the same effect.

 

[Clemson]

Brownells sells a compound called "whiting" for this purpose. It is a white powder that you mix into a paste with a solvent like methanol. Paint it onto the stock. The solvent leaches the oil from the stock, and it is soaked up by the whiting. The whiting turns brown, and you brush it away. Repeat several times. This technique has the advantage of doing no damage to the underlying wood.

I have had pretty good success with a nylon brush and mineral spirits for most cosmoline on stocks. What I have worked on with this technique has not been soaked but rather coated, however. I am nervous about soaking a wood stock in a water bath or applying caustic soda (aka, "Easy Off") to wood. Just opinion.....

Clemson

 

[GD]

I have had a lot of success with TSP and hot water. You can find this degreaser at any hardware store. It does dry out the stock so you will want to apply some BLO or tung oil.

 

[Bravo11]

I've heard of setting out in the sun, sometimes on an car dash(put something under it). I've also heard of putting it in black plastic bag with kitty litter and setting out in sun.

 

[theCZ]

I put my stock in the sun a few times in the summer, but what really worked fast for me was setting it a few feet away from my fire place on a few winter nights. Every 20 minutes or so I would go and wipe the sweat away from it. Simply amazing how much of the cosmoline comes out!

 

[BenW]

Depending on the stock, I will let heat do it's work (the fireplace in winter, the sun in the summer), then follow with either "orange" liquid degreaser, or recently and with very good results on a very cosmo soaked stock, Clorox Oxygen Action. Dry well, sand if necessary or wanted, then follow with either pure tung oil or Tru-Oil, depending on how much of a hurry I'm in.

PS -- Stay away from Easy Off. I used it on my first couple of stocks, and the immediate results were excellent. But then I read enough horror stories to believe that it is bad for the stocks. It eventually turns the wood grey and eats away at the cellulose, weakening the stock. The two I did still look nice a year later, but I'm now waiting for the fade to grey.

 

[Brian Dale]

Just a reminder, and no offense intended: gloves and ventilation. Most of you already do this. For those who are new to cleaning up & refinishing wood, that cosmoline can carry lots of nasty stuff, from lead to powder residue to whatever insecticides might have been used around the storage areas where those old rifles slept. Protect yourself.

Besides, things like actetone, methanol and even mineral spirits can leave your skin so dry that knuckles crack and bleed. Then, you'll generally know right away when you get more solvent into those open cracks in the skin (ask me how I know this ).

I've quit using Easy-Off oven cleaner on wood; it's a tried and true method, but furniture restorers convinced me that caustics and chlorine bleach can do too much damage. Furniture people used to use chlorine bleach sometimes, too, but they ruined a lot of old tables and dressers. Solvents seem to do the job better, anyway.

Note about BenW's recommendation above: I've never used OXYGEN bleaches like the one he mentions; I'm not cautioning against those.

 

[learnedmonkey]

Head over to surplusrifle.com; aside from a ton of useful information about numerous old milsurp rifles, IIRC Jamie also put up a how-to about removing cosmoline from rifle stocks, as well as stock refinishing tips. He mentions a lot of the methods used here already, and he's got links to a couple of surplus rifle forums where cosmoline comes up frequently.

This is the procedure I used to clean my Yugo when I bought it.

http://headsbunker.nothingbutguns.com/html/milsurpclean.html

So far it looks fine, although if I had a sunny day or a fireplace available I'd rather have used that.

 

[BenW]

Note about BenW's recommendation above: I've never used OXYGEN bleaches like the one he mentions; I'm not cautioning against those.

Well, I'll throw my own caveat in on this. I learned about Clorox Oxygen Action over at Parallax and all the reviews seem to be good. But it IS a fairly new idea, so you never know -- a year from now people may be saying to stay away from this method as well...

 

[Roadrunner]

I have removed cosmoline and years of grit and dirt from several FAL G1 and L1A1 wooden stocks, pistol grips and forearms in the kitchen dishwasher. Run it on a regular wash, just don't select heated dry cycle. I use whatever detergent we have. I remove the wood after 30 minutes to check the progress. At this point I rub it with an old rag and I'm able to see the nice wood grain. A couple of them I have had to run through a second wash. The hot water even removes dings and minor gouges.

Alllow the wood to air dry a couple of days, then sand and stain to your liking.