I did search and just found stuff about stripping stocks. Looking for recommendations for cleaning old Remington wood stocks and the like. I’ve only wiped down with pledge furniture polish before. Hopefully that wasn’t a terrible idea. Thanks in advance for your ideas.

The potential problem with Pledge is that it contains silicone, which can soak into the wood.

There are ways to deal with it, but if you try to refinish a wood item which has had silicone-based products like Pledge used on it, the silicone can prevent the new finish from sticking to the wood.

I bought an old Marlin that likely sat in the corner of a smoke filled gun shop for years.
It was covered in dust, soot, and impregnated with nicotine and cigarette smoke.

I used lemon oil and it made the stock look very good and drew the smoke smell out.
https://www.woodcraft.com/prod...ntent=All%20Products

quote:

Originally posted by RR:
old Remington wood stocks

That could mean 15 years old to some and 150+ years old to others.

What are we talking about?
"Cleaning" can also mean a lot of things and also not necessarily a good thing depending. What are you trying to do? Need more info on both fronts.

My genuinely old guns and newer ones with fancy wood get Balistol all over. (but none of them have poly finishes)

quote:

Originally posted by cas:

quote:

Originally posted by RR:
old Remington wood stocks

That could mean 15 years old to some and 150+ years old to others.

What are we talking about?
"Cleaning" can also mean a lot of things and also not necessarily a good thing depending. What are you trying to do? Need more info on both fronts.

My genuinely old guns and newer ones with fancy wood get Balistol all over. (but none of them have poly finishes)

Thanks for the replies. Just a general question. Most are 50+ years old. Springfield M1, Savage 99s, Remington 513T, Winchester 52B. Stuff like that. Just felt that there was a better way to wipe down the stocks than Pledge.

Brownells sells stock rubbing compound, but I have no personal experience with it.

A couple companies sell stock wax.

Renaissance wax is popular for both the wood and the metal, seems to get a lot of praise, though I've never used it either. One of those things I always mean to pick up to try but never do.

Try Birchwood-Casey, they may have something for you. I use some of their products.

On old stocks boiled linseed oil was a go to for stocks. Modern day it's called Lin-speed oil.

Rub some Ballistol on it. Brings out a lot of crap. Good ole’ fashioned linseed oil it the shizzle for old military stocks.

Great info guys. Really appreciate it. I already have some Ballistol. Just ordered some Renaissance wax and Birchwood Casey stuff. Gonna get some of that lemon oil and tung oil. I’ll try some of this on different rifles and see how it goes. Not looking to refinish at this point, just clean, condition and then protect what’s there. Thanks again!

On a collectible rifle like a M1 Garand, adding any modern wood cleaners/finishes can hurt its collectors value.

Original M1 Garand stocks were finished in 100% pure boiled linseed oil or 100% pure tung oil.

Modern boiled linseed oil and tung oil sold in hardware stores are only partly made up of linseed/tung oil, and are diluted with chemical thinners and drying agents. But you can find 100% pure linseed/tung oil online.

Of the two, 100% pure tung oil is easier to find and easier to work with. So the best thing you can do to clean and protect a M1 Garand stock without hurting its collectors value is to scrub it using a bit of 100% pure tung oil on a section of cheese cloth. You'll need to use a lot of elbow grease. As the weave of the cloth clogs with old dirt and grime from the stock, switch to a cleaner section of cloth or to a new cheesecloth as needed. Reapply small amounts of tung oil as needed to keep the cloth wet, but a little will go a long way. Keep scrubbing until there's little to no additional dirt/grime being deposited on the cheesecloth. Once you're finished, wipe the stock down with a clean, dry rag to remove any excess tung oil from the surface, and set it aside to dry for a day or so.

(Again, this is referring to 100% pure tung oil, which you can buy online. Not any of the various modern "tung oil finishes" available at the local hardware store.)

quote:

Originally posted by p08:
On old stocks boiled linseed oil was a go to for stocks. Modern day it's called Lin-speed oil.

Lin-Speed Oil is an example of a modern proprietary "linseed oil finish" product that contains a number of additional chemical additives. The manufacturer of Lin-Speed Oil states that it consists of "refined linseed oil mixed with mineral spirits and other proprietary ingredients".

It's not the same thing as the pure boiled linseed oil used to finish the stocks of rifles like Garands back in the day, which was just 100% linseed oil that was heated in order to polymerize it. No additives.

Even the cans of "boiled linseed oil" sold in hardware stores these days contain more than just linseed oil.

However, if you want old school 100% pure boiled linseed oil, you can still find it these days, though it's typically labeled as Polymerized Linseed Oil nowadays (to distinguish it from all the various the modern non-pure boiled linseed oil products available). It's available at fine woodworking stores and art stores.

100% pure raw linseed oil is also available at art stores, though in its raw form (unheated/unpolymerized) it's hard to apply to wood and takes forever to dry.

Thanks Rogue. I just ordered some pure tung oil from Real Milk Paint Co. My father got the Garand in the 1960’s from a guy who got it from the CMP. Only 4 digits in the serial number. Been a few decades since i shot it.

Pure Boiled Linseed Oil is still available at some hardware stores, I get mine at a local True Value.

For Tung Oil I get that from a Wood Working Hobbyist shop and it is most definitely NOT the same as Linseed oil. It is the ONLY Oil finish listed as Food Safe, Linseed oil is slightly Toxic. The downside with using Tung Oil is that it's a very slow drying oil, if you want a fully filled Tung Oil finish then you better budget two to three YEARS to get that finish. That slow drying is why I do NOT believe it was ever used on the M1 Garrand or any other military rifle.

I'll also note that Linseed Oil is the finest Anti spatter for welding on the planet. Coat something to be protected with Linseed OIL and spatter will not stick. Also protects gas cups but you do have to wait for it to dry before welding with it.

BRIWAX, an acquaintenance uses this exclusively on his restorations of antique woodworking tools, some of which are darn right gorgeous and carry a lot of value.

HERE IS A LINK to BRIWAX in clear, and they offer other shades of color.

This stuff is really good. It cleans really well, and it protects extremely well. It's also good on metal tools etc.
.

quote:

Originally posted by Scooter123:
That slow drying is why I do NOT believe it was ever used on the M1 Garrand or any other military rifle.

It's not a matter of mere belief or supposition.

It's a documented fact.

USGI stocks were dipped in heated vats of linseed oil or tung oil (it varied during different periods) for ~5 minutes, and then hung to dry. Walnut stocks went through two rounds of dipping/drying; later birch stocks only went through one round.

Linseed oil was used from the 1800s until 1941, when they switched to tung oil. Tung oil then became hard to source in large quantities (since most of the world's supply came from China), so once supplies started getting low at the end of 1943 they switched back to linseed oil. Then after WW2 ended, they went back to tung oil since it was available again, and that remained the finish for post-WW2 USGI wood stocks through the M14.

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

If you mean stripping for refinish?
I use furniture stripper (Formbys).
I have done many Remington and Winchester woodstocks
Glove up and 000-0000 steelwool apply and rub the wood down. Use a toothbrush in checkered areas. Change stripper 3-4 times until all finish is gone.
Let stock dry-air out and sand with progressively finer grit. Save the fine sand dust to mix with filler.
Finish according to directions on your finish product. Filling might be more involved on some woods

I would use a solvent first to remove the bulk of the gunk. The waxes that clean have solvent built in but if you aren't careful, the gunk can reset in the wax products. So clean first, then wax. I use mineral spirits. Briwax is good. Many prefer Renaissance.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:

quote:

Originally posted by p08:
On old stocks boiled linseed oil was a go to for stocks. Modern day it's called Lin-speed oil.

Lin-Speed Oil is an example of a modern proprietary "linseed oil finish" product that contains a number of additional chemical additives. The manufacturer of Lin-Speed Oil states that it consists of "refined linseed oil mixed with mineral spirits and other proprietary ingredients".

It's not the same thing as the pure boiled linseed oil used to finish the stocks of rifles like Garands back in the day, which was just 100% linseed oil that was heated in order to polymerize it. No additives.

Even the cans of "boiled linseed oil" sold in hardware stores these days contain more than just linseed oil.

However, if you want old school 100% pure boiled linseed oil, you can still find it these days, though it's typically labeled as Polymerized Linseed Oil nowadays (to distinguish it from all the various the modern non-pure boiled linseed oil products available). It's available at fine woodworking stores and art stores.

100% pure raw linseed oil is also available at art stores, though in its raw form (unheated/unpolymerized) it's hard to apply to wood and takes forever to dry.

modern,,, HA!!!

linspeed is probably older than I am (58)!!!

bad thing about it on military type stocks is as Rogue mentioned, it has stuff in it, and tends to 'shine' when it cures,

For cleaning, good old mineral spirits was what I always used.

If you want to completely strip off the finish google easy off oven cleaner gunstock and you’ll find lots of info on how that works.

Good luck.