Starting breaking down the drill rifle this evening. Ran into a snag on the buttplate, one screw was so worn from use it had no groove left for a flat head to grab. I’ll drill it and use an easy out tomorrow. You can see how gummed up it is. I’ll clean everything up really well and take y’all’s advice on the wood.







OP: Enfield Drill rifle that Rogue pointed out to me finally arrived. It's not caked with cosmoline and crud but it’s carrying a good bit. I'm good on the metal parts cleaning them out. I've been doing a lot of that lately. With regards to the stock, I'm reading all sorts of stuff online, acetone, mineral spirits, easy off, heat gun.

If I'm planning on sanding it and refinishing in tung oil, is there a way that's better than another? I do realize that if I soak it in a solvent of any kind I'll need to dry it out for a while before doing any additional work on it. I'll probably do some oil, 600 grit, rub, repeat on it for 5-6 coats once its all cleaned up.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OttoSig,

In my opinion, what is needed can be on a stock to stock basis based on the existing finish or level of filth.

I've used methylene chloride paint stripper, Citristrip, Acetone, Simple Green, Purple Power, GoJo and probably several other things to strip stocks prior to refinishing.

These days, I use the least aggressive method first and work my way up from there.

With the caveat that I've done lots of Martini and Enfield stocks, I've used Kleenstrip to remove everything, then acetone or DA for touch-ups on stubborn spots.
I never sand, as there might be cartouches or markings that sanding will obliterate.If there are rough spots near a cartouche or marking, but a piece of blue painters tape over the marking before you sand and work around it. I've used Tung Oil, but prefer Linseed oil, because that's what the British used. Go minimal and first do no harm

Watching some videos and reading more it does seem like sanding it less desirable on an original stock.

Gonna continue with some of these videos before I ask any more questions that will likely be answered!

Remove the parts, place the stock in a black trash bag and put it on the dash of your car. The heat will make the cosmoline flow out of the wood. Give it a few hours, open it wipe off with a rag and put it back in.

Then you can clean it with soap n water, let it dry and use BLO or tung oil(but check the lable most brands have some kind of varnish in it)

Was a time that the dishwasher was the recommended way to go. I dunno if anyone does that anymore. I redid my first Garand stock back when I worked in a kitchen. Two passes through our high capacity industrial took it down to bare, steamy wood, and I'm not sure it really even needed the second pass. Draws crud and oil out of the wood grain and helps steam out dents and dings all in one go. Wife might get pissed, though. A second dry-run with no dishes to make sure anything on the stock doesn't end up in your food used to be the recommended followup action.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeinNC:
Remove the parts, place the stock in a black trash bag and put it on the dash of your car. The heat will make the cosmoline flow out of the wood. Give it a few hours, open it wipe off with a rag and put it back in.

Then you can clean it with soap n water, let it dry and use BLO or tung oil(but check the lable most brands have some kind of varnish in it)

THIS is what I'm after...I'll try that as a first go. Though I may lay the bag a couple feet from the space heater in the camper as right now it's probably not gonna get warm enough in the car with the current weather down here.

I bought a quart of Pure tung oil some time back in anticpation of buying a few new production bare stocks. Never even opened it.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
Was a time that the dishwasher was the recommended way to go. I dunno if anyone does that anymore. I redid my first Garand stock back when I worked in a kitchen. Two passes through our high capacity industrial took it down to bare, steamy wood, and I'm not sure it really even needed the second pass. Draws crud and oil out of the wood grain and helps steam out dents and dings all in one go. Wife might get pissed, though. A second dry-run with no dishes to make sure anything on the stock doesn't end up in your food used to be the recommended followup action.

I would not expect many wooden items to survive those industrial dishwashers. I remember ours at the Italian restaurant I worked at when I was 16, that thing SANITIZED everything. That's kinda crazy. Though I guess quality wooden utensils survive many dozen trips through household dishwasher.

As I remember, it went in with some sort of a polyurethane finish a prior owner put on it, and it came out bare wood. Several coats of BLO and it looked great. For sure, a lot less dicking around than trash bags and heat guns and all that. No tasty liver cancer chemicals to boot.

Be warned that this method can and will make a lot of proof marks disappear.

Heat makes it flow. If there’s no cartouches or the like to save on the stock, boiling water also works and quickly. It can raise the grain, though.

I'm a fan of the bag method, then mineral spirits to clean and degrease what's left, followed up by boiled linseed oil. Wood is delicate and being to harsh with it can really break things down. I also really try to avoid sanding whenever possible since it alters the shape and texture of the stock. My goal is never to make it look like new, though, just clean it, stabilize and protect it from further deterioration. Part of the character of an old service rifle is those bumps and bruises in the stock, as well as any rack numbers, cartouches, stamps, etc. If you take them away then it's just another rifle.

Here's a No4 that I cleaned up, before and after:

Yep. Heat is the best/safest way.

While it's better in the summer, as MikeinNC pointed out sweating it in a garbage bag in the sun is one of the easiest ways to get most of the gunk out of old greasy milsurp wood. (But skip his next tip about further cleaning with soapy water...)

You can achieve similar with a heat gun, which is quicker but more effort.

Avoid any chemicals or steam/water, as you'll take the markings, character, and original finish off of the wood.

Definitely don't sand it.


You can use hot water, denatured alcohol, or nonchlorinated brake cleaner to get the gunk off the metal bits, but don't get those on the wood parts. And be sure to re-oil the metal really well afterwards.

I use the garbage bag method followed up by Simply Green or better yet, Easy Off oven cleaner. Both methods using a tooth brush and elbow grease. Then a quick rinse in water and let it dry. I have had many buried cartouches come out to be seen that way. Any dents I feel need to be removed I use a damp wash cloth on the wood and apply a hot clothes iron to steam them out some. This is followed up by several coats of Linspeed brand gunstock finish.

Garbage bag in front of the space heater is working well. Got a couple more rounds to go.

Next solution needed is the best way to remove this paint from the drill rifle furniture without harming the finish. As I’m cleaning it, I’m realizing the wood has a great color, that red that comes from the age and oil on surplus rifles.

I don’t want to ruin that, so how can I get the paint off without having to refinish the whole stock?

quote:

Originally posted by OttoSig:
Garbage bag in front of the space heater is working well. Got a couple more rounds to go.

Next solution needed is the best way to remove this paint from the drill rifle furniture without harming the finish. As I’m cleaning it, I’m realizing the wood has a great color, that red that comes from the age and oil on surplus rifles.

I don’t want to ruin that, so how can I get the paint off without having to refinish the whole stock?

You can't, IMO. Anything that's strong enough to effectively remove the paint will also remove the oil finish.

You can try a judicious and accurate application of citri-strip or something painted on only where the paint is, and see if you can get the paint to bubble/flake off without too much removal of the underlying finish. But IMO there'll be a lighter spot there once the paint is gone. No biggie

I would also expect that even after the paint is stripped, even if you strip the whole forend that you'll still be able to tell where the stripes were unless you pick all the paint out of the pores of the wood and/or sand the forend.

Yep.

So leave the paint. It's part of the history anyway.

Dab straight simple green on the paint a little spot at a time and see if it will bubble up the paint, if it gets on the wood it’ll remove the oil and leave it super clean(which is not what you are going for)

All done.

Got a couple small parts to buy form numrichs, plus a little wood filler on the buttock screws outta do it. I’ll clean up the magazine later, should be 4 total. Perfect for a chest rig set up!

Before:





After:

Much better!

Now you just need a P1907 bayonet and a P1908 web sling for it.