I sanded down my stock and the color isn't uniform. There are some obvious light spots and those lights spots are what I would ideally like to be the whole color of the stock. I keep sanding and sanding, even tried bleaching it but nothing. It seems like this may be the pattern and color all the way through. Should I keep sanding? How do you know when you've sanded too much? Is it nothing to worry about and will the stain even it out? I wanted this one to be a blonde but unless I can get the whole stock that light color I think she might have to be a brunette or red head. Any ideas for color?
Thanks

The true color is a little lighter than it appears in these pictures

Your Yugo stock has seen years of cosmoline oil and appears to me (in my opinion) to merely be saturated, the dark areas are where the cosmoline is still entrapped. What I have done in the past is bake the wood at 130 to 140 degrees for several hours so the oil will leech out and wipe it down with a clean cloth and acetone or a HCFC based brake cleaner (I prefer Autozone). You may have to do this several times to bring the oils to the surface. Make sure you let the solvents flash off the vapors before placing it back into the oven. The wood (beech in this case I believe) will then turn a constant shade will then you can continue with whatever sealing process you choose without the blotches.

Thanks for that tip! I will definitely give it a shot. When you say "let the solvents flash off the vapors" what exactly do you mean by flash? I assume so it won't ignite in the oven but how would I do this? Sorry, I'm new to this whole thing

Try this; Go to a paint store and buy a product called "whiting". It usually comes in a milk carton type of cantainer. It's nothing more than powdered chalk. Mix it with acetone in a metal or glass container making it about the consistancy of thin pancake padder. Paint it on and let it sit for awhile. The chalk will soak up the oil and turn brown. Repeat as needed.  I have done this to stocks that were so badly oil soaked that the chalk turned almost black. This can be a little messy, but it works very well.

Basically he means let it dry and air out good before you put it back into the oven.

By the way, I think you have teak wood, which isn't going to lend itself to a blond finish.

Here are a number of suggestions for cleaning up yugo wood.

Yugo wood tips

The best method I have found has been accomplished over 20 rifle refinishes later.

Since you have sanded it already at this point I would not waste your time with the oven trick. Go buy yourself a cheap heat gun and on a low setting keep the heat gun about 3 inches from the stock while moving it around. As the cosmo melts out to the surface wipe it off with paper towels. When it stops melting to the surface then you have got all the cosmo out you ever will. This method makes the oven trick obsolete.

Next step would be to use lacquer or paint thinner. At this point since you want as much light color you can obtain I would go ahead and use lacquer thinner since it will strip a little left over stain and also remove any grease left behind by the cosmo.

At this step you are not going to get any more dark color out of the stock, whatever color it is will be the base color you start with. So I would lightly rub the stock down with 0000 steal wool to smooth the finish out. Blow the stock off to get dust off or use a tack rag. Then really you need to choose what stain your going to use etc. and apply it. After applying the stain you will need to let it dry for 12 hours or so before using 0000 steal wool again to smooth the finish out.

After you have obtained the color you are looking for you will need to seal the wood back up after you stripped it of all moisture and sealant properties. You will need to choose between Boiled linseed oil if you want a warm but natural wood look, Tung Oil if you want to keep coating it until it gets shiny or use steal wool to dull the finish back down once the wood has taken so many coats of it, or you can use a Poly to give it a really shiny look that is durable.

I find that it is way easier to use Tung Oil or BLO in case you get a blem or scratch in your finish it will be easy to touch up and fix, with poly that is  not easily the case. Remember whatever you do get all the cosmo out first or when you stain and seal the wood it will have a waxy feel to the touch and you will have to start your whole process of stripping all over again.

Thanks for all the help guys, great suggestions and answers

Could the oven trick be done using a pottery kiln?

Seems like the source of the heat isn't as important as the fact that you can get the heat to above 125 degrees, its melting point but below 365 degress, its flash point. In my opinion a pottery kiln would work fine

In mine I usually fire stuff for a minimum of twelve hours.  I am wondering if a twenty-four bake at a lower temperature might be more effective than a shorter bake at a higher temperature.

This is how I did mine.  I baked it at 150 and wiped it down every 1/2 hour.  It took 4 hrs to finally stop oozing the Cosmoline.  make sure you have some sort of catch pan.

I don't have photos, but the stocks look pretty good.  The color isn't completely uniform, but the before and after is very noticable.