We have some plastic chairs in the back yard that were covered with all kinds of nasty crap, and it was actually IN the plastic. Little black dots, like dirt and mold imbedded in the plastic itself. You couldn't clean them off.

But my dad got out the power washer and it completely blasted out all the crap IN the plastic and left them bright and white again.

I wonder if this method could be used to blast cosmoline, dirt, and oil out of a rifle stock. Anyone try it?

It's best to keep as much water away from stocks since it raises the grain and could lead to warpage. Don't ask me how I know because I'm not admiting to the horrible things I did before doing enough research to learn.

how about the "dishwasher" technique thats been described on these threads?   Seems to me that if the woods really a mess that a good cleanup and authentic refinish might just be the way to go.   Damned sure you'll have problems with a gunked up beater piece of wood, so some drastic approach might be in order.

I have a pressure washer and I wouldn't point it towards ANY wood that I care about.

Quoted: I have a pressure washer and I wouldn't point it towards ANY wood that I care about.

What he said.  A power washer is a really, really...well...powerful piece of equipment, and you can gouge wood very easily with it.  And once you make that mistake it's very hard to correct.  

I have used the dishwasher with good results and I have also used the car wash on a Gew 88 and used the soap and degreaser on it and it worked fairly well. You can also wrap the rifle or stock in a black trash bag and set it out in the sun, the cosmoline will come right out in a few hours. I am doing that to a Turkish Mauser as we speak. I would not use a power washer tho. Car wash is as powerful as I will go.

Quoted: You can also wrap the rifle or stock in a black trash bag and set it out in the sun, the cosmoline will come right out in a few hours.

Yeah, "sweating" it out seems to work well.  Just wipe it off every so often.  

Of course, winter is approaching so the plastic bag in the sun trick probably won't work so well.  I did one on my BBQ grill on low.  I put aluminum foil over the grill so as to keep the gunk off of where I cook.

Just check it often, and don't let it get too hot.  I now have a small scorch mark on a beater SKS.

The low heat and mineral spirits is the hands down, best way I have found to clean off cosmoline.

I just went through this with an M44 a couple of weeks ago. Warmed everything in the oven, except for the stock - too long yet , and wiped the parts down with paper towels. Put them back in the oven to warm up and then bathed the parts in mineral spirits and a paint brush. Unbelievable easy.

I did was the stock in as hot of water as I could fill the bath tub with. Add a few drops of dish soap and used a plastic bristle brush. Stock cleaned up rather nicely but I do need some heat to get the deep down cosmo out of it. I really hope I don't have to wait until next summer, but may have too.

I used denatured alcohol and steel wool on my M1 garand stock. Also had to steam out some dings from the crate it had been shipped in. Right now I'm waiting for a decent day so that I can start applying the tung oil.