I’m sure that some may want to vote in between and it may depend on the firearm, but I really want to know which school of thought prevails. I’m personally torn between the two positions.
I read the following at another website, and I do want my new and beginning collection to last 100 + years. I did a simple mineral spirits cleaning on my Turk 38 and I’m applying BLO and it still looks like it been to hell and back. Then I see other examples that look better than when they were new (in photos), because they received the more extreme treatment.
For those who have used oven cleaner, have there been any ill effects? What’s the oldest sample/example out there. Will these oven cleaner miracle restorations be falling apart in 20 years?
And don’t tell me to do whatever gives me pleasure. I find pleasure in doing the right thing and smart thing.
Taken from another site:
"excessive cleaning and de-greasing will destroy a gunstock, both it's value and functionality, just as surely as sanding. It may just take longer to become apparent.
I've been a cabinetmaker, furniture maker, and restoration millworker for a long time, so I speak with some degree of knowledge here. "Oil is good for wood, and water is bad." is about as close to an absolute truth as you can get with wood. The lifespan of oil soaked wood is almost indefinite, while the longevity of unfinished, poorly finished, or chemically damaged wood shrinks to a fraction of our own. Ther are exceptions, of course, woods like cypress and locust which will last 100 years lying out in the weather, but not the cabinet grade woods that make up gunstocks.
It is important to think re-furbish, or re-habilitate, not restore, when approaching old oil finished woodwork. Restore implies return to new, which is impossible. Re-furbush means to work with what is there to achieve functionality and longevity, with the pleasure of the hand and eye in mind. I don't do museum re-habs on furniture, which are minimal intervention, appearance only oriented. My clients live with their furniture, have it for the pleasure of hand and eye, and want to pass it on to their children. This is how I think about a 200 year old table or a 75 year old chair by a famous cabinetmaker, and it is how we should think about our gunstocks.
The first absolute to remember when looking at an oily/greasy gunstock is that you will not get all the oil/grease out. Period. The second is that any wood that has been oil soaked or oil finished must be refinished with oil. A film (surface) finish like varnish, shellac, lacquer will not last, even pseudo oil finishes, like tru-oil, and some fake tung oils may have problems. Whatever method you use to remove the oil will drive some deeper into the wood. If one accepts this as axiomatic, then obviously a ballance needs to be struck between aesthetic considerations (color, grain, oil soaking into your shirt and cheek) and damage to the wood through de-greasing. Oils removed, either gun grease/oil or old oil finish, carry with them the woods natural resins and oils, leaving the wood completely defenceless. The cell structure is really quite brittle without the resins. Whatever oil you remove must be replaced or the wood will rapidly degrade and lose dimentional stability. We'd want to replace the grease with a more desirable oil, this would be a hardening oil with good penetration. this new oil will provide protection to the wood and a barrier to the undesireable oil deeper in the wood. IMHO boiled linseed and real tung are the best two choices. Light and slow drying equal deeper penetration.
When de-greasing there are a few things to keep in mind. Some portion of any chemical agent used to de-grease will remain behind, attacking (perhaps very slowly) the wood, existing oils, and any new oil finish. Water bourne de-greasing methods will accelerate degeneration and instability in the wood, carrying away watersoluble resins that may not have left with the grease, and performing all sorts of additional microscopic damage and destruction.
Obviously each stock needs to be evaluated indivudually. I'm sure that I've never seen a stock as soaked as some described in this thread, but I would caution discretion if you want the stock to last another 100 years. The lowest impact approach is to loosen and lighten impacted oil and draw it out. I would offer two methods. On good to moderate stocks work liberal amounts of real tung or boiled linseed with grey scotchbrite (very fine) wiping often with clean cotton rags. This will loosen and float out moderate oil. It will also soften hard caked deposits, which can be scraped loose with something no harder than the stock, like 1/4" x 3/8" hardwood strips sharpened like a chisel. Do this 3 or 4 times and you've cleaned and finished the stock. For moderate to heavily soaked stocks I would drench with mineral spirits, and then pack the stock in fine sawdust or cat litter, and store in a warm place. Do this every day for a week or so, packing with fresh absorbent and then procede to method one.
Final note: you need to work with the oil/grease not fight it. Confront it on it's own terms. Kind of like judo or WW boating. Sorry to be so long winded.
Mike McClintock "
http://www.milsurpshooter.net/
I read the following at another website, and I do want my new and beginning collection to last 100 + years. I did a simple mineral spirits cleaning on my Turk 38 and I’m applying BLO and it still looks like it been to hell and back. Then I see other examples that look better than when they were new (in photos), because they received the more extreme treatment.
For those who have used oven cleaner, have there been any ill effects? What’s the oldest sample/example out there. Will these oven cleaner miracle restorations be falling apart in 20 years?
And don’t tell me to do whatever gives me pleasure. I find pleasure in doing the right thing and smart thing.
Taken from another site:
"excessive cleaning and de-greasing will destroy a gunstock, both it's value and functionality, just as surely as sanding. It may just take longer to become apparent.
I've been a cabinetmaker, furniture maker, and restoration millworker for a long time, so I speak with some degree of knowledge here. "Oil is good for wood, and water is bad." is about as close to an absolute truth as you can get with wood. The lifespan of oil soaked wood is almost indefinite, while the longevity of unfinished, poorly finished, or chemically damaged wood shrinks to a fraction of our own. Ther are exceptions, of course, woods like cypress and locust which will last 100 years lying out in the weather, but not the cabinet grade woods that make up gunstocks.
It is important to think re-furbish, or re-habilitate, not restore, when approaching old oil finished woodwork. Restore implies return to new, which is impossible. Re-furbush means to work with what is there to achieve functionality and longevity, with the pleasure of the hand and eye in mind. I don't do museum re-habs on furniture, which are minimal intervention, appearance only oriented. My clients live with their furniture, have it for the pleasure of hand and eye, and want to pass it on to their children. This is how I think about a 200 year old table or a 75 year old chair by a famous cabinetmaker, and it is how we should think about our gunstocks.
The first absolute to remember when looking at an oily/greasy gunstock is that you will not get all the oil/grease out. Period. The second is that any wood that has been oil soaked or oil finished must be refinished with oil. A film (surface) finish like varnish, shellac, lacquer will not last, even pseudo oil finishes, like tru-oil, and some fake tung oils may have problems. Whatever method you use to remove the oil will drive some deeper into the wood. If one accepts this as axiomatic, then obviously a ballance needs to be struck between aesthetic considerations (color, grain, oil soaking into your shirt and cheek) and damage to the wood through de-greasing. Oils removed, either gun grease/oil or old oil finish, carry with them the woods natural resins and oils, leaving the wood completely defenceless. The cell structure is really quite brittle without the resins. Whatever oil you remove must be replaced or the wood will rapidly degrade and lose dimentional stability. We'd want to replace the grease with a more desirable oil, this would be a hardening oil with good penetration. this new oil will provide protection to the wood and a barrier to the undesireable oil deeper in the wood. IMHO boiled linseed and real tung are the best two choices. Light and slow drying equal deeper penetration.
When de-greasing there are a few things to keep in mind. Some portion of any chemical agent used to de-grease will remain behind, attacking (perhaps very slowly) the wood, existing oils, and any new oil finish. Water bourne de-greasing methods will accelerate degeneration and instability in the wood, carrying away watersoluble resins that may not have left with the grease, and performing all sorts of additional microscopic damage and destruction.
Obviously each stock needs to be evaluated indivudually. I'm sure that I've never seen a stock as soaked as some described in this thread, but I would caution discretion if you want the stock to last another 100 years. The lowest impact approach is to loosen and lighten impacted oil and draw it out. I would offer two methods. On good to moderate stocks work liberal amounts of real tung or boiled linseed with grey scotchbrite (very fine) wiping often with clean cotton rags. This will loosen and float out moderate oil. It will also soften hard caked deposits, which can be scraped loose with something no harder than the stock, like 1/4" x 3/8" hardwood strips sharpened like a chisel. Do this 3 or 4 times and you've cleaned and finished the stock. For moderate to heavily soaked stocks I would drench with mineral spirits, and then pack the stock in fine sawdust or cat litter, and store in a warm place. Do this every day for a week or so, packing with fresh absorbent and then procede to method one.
Final note: you need to work with the oil/grease not fight it. Confront it on it's own terms. Kind of like judo or WW boating. Sorry to be so long winded.
Mike McClintock "
http://www.milsurpshooter.net/
