Stock Refinishing.

[Rretired]

New member and thanks for making room for an old retired sailor. I'm the proud owner of an 1898 krag Rifle with a cut down stock. It has seen many years of use ( knocks, dents) but is tight . Head space is ok. The stock is very dark with years of oxidation. Cartouches are very faint and I don't think they could be saved . I will be joining a new forestock beneath the rear barrel band and will have to blend old wood with new. This is not my first rodeo and have refinished a number of stocks (steamed dents, acra-glass, tung oil,shoe dyes) but most have been very aggressive with a lot of chemicals and sanding. Anyone have any advise on a better and less wood grain destructive way to strip the old wood ? Any techniques, suggestions would be appreciated. Ray

[cdagnese]

Best way I ever found to remove old oxidized linseed oil was to spray it down generously with "Oven Off" oven cleaner, let it sit, and rinse it off with water. It may take a couple of cycles to get it all, but it does a pretty good job. The best stock finish I ever used was boiled linseed oil or a product called "Linspeed". The boiled linseed takes 24 hours to dry between coats. The Linspeed dries in 4 hours. Nothing beats the beauty of a hand oiled stock.

[Chromebolt]

Oven Off works great. But, use gloves. The Lye will affect your fingernails. Ask me how I know.

[butlersrangers]

I favor little 2"X3" Scotchbrite pads, saturated with mineral spirits to remove dirt, grease and grime (or Formby's stripper-refinisher, if varnish is to be removed). I don't use much pressure and change pads as they load up with crud. My goal is to clean (but not remove) wood and preserve markings. Based on cleaning results, I renew appearance with Linseed or Tung oil, Howard 'Feed-N-Wax', Scot's Liquid Gold, Trewax (Paste wax with Carnauba), and Pledge.
Check previous KCA pages. Dick Hosmer and Parashooter have mentioned very nice techniques in the past (for cleaning and applying raw linseed oil).