Getting Oil Out of Gun Stock With Solvents....On A Budget

[Christian Setla]

Copper sulphate mixed with water was often used as a layout fluid for metal work. Dissolved copper sulphate coats steel with a thin coating of copper which allowed scribe marks to show. Later, layout dyes became more common to use, such as Dykem Steel blue.

Of course 70 years could allow for a great many things to infiltrate such inlet bits. Bore cleaners that dissolved gilding metal fouling, assorted gun oils and other cleaners. Perhaps your best bet is to simply allow some of the 70 years worth of patina to show through.... it has been around for a while. A bit of blackness or tarnish bothers me a whole lot less on a stock than that blasted plastic coating they put on Weatherby's and the like. I'll take a hand rubbed oil finish any day, even with a few blotches from years of use. As for inletting stocks..... I liked the idea of just strapping the hardware to a growing walnut tree instead of doing it the usual way. I never did like that kind of work. I'd do metal work with hand tools and woodwork with woodworking tools in the gunshop, but marrying the two was something I could just not wrap my head around well enough to be happy with the results. (Yes, I'm an awful critic of my own work).

As for Oillift, they use some nifty bacteria in some of their cleaners that break down oil. The Flubber dust can be swept up after use and left exposed in bright sunlight for a day or two and placed back in the container for use another day as the oil is completely broken down. One of the liquids they sell bubbles up the oil to the surface of porous materials where the Flubber dust can finish absorbing it and break it down. The inventor uses these products for his household laundry, cleaning outdoor carpets and who knows what else. I think it would be well worth an email... That chap has had a bee in his bonnet for many years about the pollution caused by using solvents in an attempt to clean up oil.

Good luck with your project.

[Matthew Hutchinson477]

So, fun fact, turns out most heavy-duty contractor/garbage bags are made of either HDPE or LDPE. I put a little bit of acetone in a Hefty contractor bag and 8 hours later no apparent damage. So there's my solution there.

[Keith Outten]

There was a time long ago when poor people used firearms to provide food for the table that they applied used motor oil on gun stocks to protect them from the weather. This was also true in both World War I and II so its pretty common to find very old military gunstocks that have been totally saturated with used motor oil.

[Christian Setla]

Just for giggles.... Here is a video excerpt from a Jon Eakes monthly webcast where he shows the results of using "Oil Lift, from Save the Oceans Inc." to clean the carpeting his own indoor stairs. It may be made for lifting oil stains on concrete, but it can be used in lots of other scenarios.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/113151609?t=1741

[johnny means]

I've dealt with similar situations by making a fitted "tray" out of aluminum foil.

[William M Johnson]

I have had excellent results using lacquer thinner to remove oil. Most recently I used it on an English shotgun made in the 1870s. The wood was almost black. After the thinner and a heat gun I found a piece of wood that would be irreplaceable today. The heat gun helped a lot.

Bill