I'll post it if anybody's interested.

post it

or you can go here




lots of good stuff on that site

I don't care for the Satin Finish, Polyurethane finish coat , I prefer lindseed oil. Poly is good and makes more sense but that's just me.

1 is enough.


gather the stuff:
easy-off oven cleaner, dish soap, a pail, BOILED linseed oil. DO NOTUSE RAW LINSEED OIL!! rubber gloves, a spark plug socket, duct tape sandpaper

What you are trying to do is remove years of cosmoline and linseed oil from the wood. Any damage to the wood is just TS, huge gouges can't be removed.

Clear the weapon and strip it down.(for an m1)

remove all metal. The front sling swivel is simple, unscrew and loosen and pop off. removing the buttplate allows the rear swivel to pop out.
On the forward handguard, tape all metal with duct tape.


Apply easy-off to the wood, let sit and wash off with soap and water. rinse. let dry. repeat as needed.

when dry, sand as needed and/or 'bone' the wood. A spark plug socket works good.

boning is rubbing HARD with a hard, smooth object to remove the fluffies and smooth up the wood.

Apply a coat of linseed oil and let dry.

The following day, apply another and rub it in HARD with bare hands, allowing the heat of friction to force it in.

Repeat this 7 times for a week, once a week for a month, once a month for a year and annually thereafter.

Does Easy-Off Oven Cleaner really work?

EDIT: seems it does, slow on the draw tonight.

Tell it Brother Pic!

Danny

im a fan of linseed oil also but i found something a few years ago that looks the same as linseed oil hand rubbed finish but protects the stock better.....its made by minwax and i bought it at LOWES....its called ANTIQUE OIL FINISH.....comes in a red can....you can hand rub it in but this stuff actually dries hard and is waterproof........you can leave it at a high gloss or rub it in for a dull finish.

DO NOT USE OVEN CLEANER!!!!!!.

Oven cleaner is a lye based product (Sodium hydroxide)  Sodium hydroxide is about as powerful a base as you can find (PH of 14).  Yes the solution is dilute, but it's still enough to cause chemical burns to skin in seconds leaving that skin sensitive to light for weeks afterward.   Lye is a primary ingredient in the solutions paper mills use to dissolve wood chips into pulp. Is this something you want to put in contact with a 60 year old wood stock?  HELL NO.

What Lye does is it eats into the lignin that bonds the wood fibers together, this will leave the surface wood punky and weak, potentially destroying the proper fit of wood to metal required for accuracy.

Lye is also a a chemical dye, well, not really a dye so much as a colorant.  It will generally darken wood, but can also cause it to radically change color.  In some cases it will react quite dramatically with contaminants in the wood, prior stains, oils, etc. to blacken the wood or turn it green.  Lighter woods especially tend to take on a green hue after being exposed to oven cleaner and lye-based strippers.

Some time ago, sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide were both staple ingredients for commercial stripping operations simply because the stuff would eat just about any finish in short order.  The problem was that it also ate the glues that held the furniture together, made the wood punky and discolored and ruined it's ability to take a finish well.  Many lawsuits later, they all but abandoned lye as a furniture stripper except for the most stubborn finishes.   Instead they work with safer and more controllable Methylene Chloride strippers.  These strippers are more safely handled, less damaging to the wood, nearly as effective and can be more easily cleaned off of the wood without requiring neutralization.  You can buy them at any hardware store under any of a dozen or more names including Zip Strip, Strip Eeze, Dad's, etc.  

I classify Easy Off and similar "stripping solutions" as false shortcuts and lazy man's mistakes.  Stay away from them.


BTW,  I'm not just repeating something someone else has said.  I used a lye-based stripper on a number of different projects and while it did cut through the nastiest of built up paint and varnish finishes, it also severely damaged the wood (lots of it) requiring extensive repairs and replacement.  The companies that manufacture lye based paint and varnish strippers do not recommend them for woods that will receive a clear finish.  Why?  Because the lye generally discolors the wood.

Your mileage may vary, but the fact that none of the top three furniture refinishers in the business (Jewitt, Dresdner and Flexner) recommend lye-based chemicals as strippers except in the most extreme cases), should tell you something.  Ignore their advice at your peril.

I manage a restaurant and have found the easiest way to clean stocks is to run them through my dishwasher.  180 degree water melts just about anything off.  Wash cycle is one minute so it dosen't get waterlogged.