doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Diatemaceous Earth to remove oil?

Have you used it to remove oil from gunstocks?
Any tips on it's use?
How long did it take for you to get results?
How did it work for you?
Thank you,
Dale

I've never used DE but I have used oven cleaner to remove oil from stocks and it works very well with older military ones.
A gentler solution is to immerse the stock in acetone in a covered pan.
Jim

I've heard of it but never tried it. I have tried packing a stock in kitty litter and leaving it in a very warm place for a month or so, and that does draw out a lot of oil. I also sometimes use kitty litter as an absorbent for oil spots on my garage floor. But recently, I was burning out some tree stumps and brought in a shovel one evening that had a clump of wet wood ashes on it. When they dried out, they fell off the shovel in my garage and I swept them into a pile and left them sit on an oil spot. When I removed them a couple days later, it looked like new concrete under the pile. The wood ash did a much better job of absorbing oil than the kitty litter ever did, so I'm wondering if wood ash would be even better (and cheaper) than diatomaceous earth on an oiled gun stock.

I would say the absorbent methods of oil removal are temperature dependent. The old congealed oil will flow toward the surface quicker when it is warmed. But you can over do it. I once was warming a forearm from an Ithaca Flues in an old microwave while wrapped in toilet paper as an absorbent. It was working great and oil was just oozing out and getting sopped up. I kept going a little at a time leaving the wood in the microwave long enough to get it very warm to the touch. I got a bit impatient and left it in longer and heard a cracking sound and found that the forearm wood split from overheating. Fortunately it followed the grain flow and I was able to glue and clamp it with some polyurethane glue for an invisible repair. Polyurethane glue is better than epoxy for wood that may still have traces of oil in it. I've de-oiled stocks with absorbents and solvents and thought they were clean. But after leaving them sit for a month or so without refinishing, more oil would migrate to the surface from deep within the wood. I think it's close to impossible to get every last bit out of very oiled wood.

Not used DE but i have used

A stiff Powdered chalk paste smothered into the inletting and allowed to dry out will slowly draw oil out of the stock, if you do it a couple of times you can get really good results. To remove it just warm water and scrub gently with a tooth brush.

Or Acetone as suggested.

i can't see why wood ash wouldn't work. When removing oil from the head of a stock i sit it by the range or wood burner ( not too near ) and have it in a cradle with the head facing down to try and encourage the oil to run out.

keith,
Just a thought.Years ago soap was made with lye which was made by wetting wood ashes.Lye is pretty corrosive,do you think it might make metal in contact with wood de-oiled with wet wood ash rust? Remember the salt dried Browning stocks? It seems that DE should be as gentle as whiting or kitty litter, and if you have any left over, you can kill insects in the garden with it.
Mike

Mike, I believe it's the sodium hydroxide or lye which would be corrosive. I think the wood ashes would be pretty much inert, but it would probably be best to experiment on a junk piece of wood before doing a stock from a good gun. I have many times used household ammonia to clean grunge from dirty stocks because the ammonia will also saponify old gun and skin oils and the resulting soap is water soluble. Works great and I've never had any rusting issues with the metal in wood cleaned that way.

I do know though, that I'll be saving some wood ash from the fireplace for oil spots on the garage floor or driveway. When I saw how well it sucked up the oil spot on my garage floor, my immediate thought was how well it might work on an oiled gun stock.

Here's an article about how to make lye solution for soapmaking (or, apparently, as a catalyst for biodiesel): http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_ashlye.html

Note that the lye is potassium hydroxide, not sodium. The lye's reaction with fats is what makes soap, called saponification. I suspect a similar reaction is taking place between the wood ashes and the motor oil on your garage floors. Note also that the "proper" strength of lye solution is one which will [promptly] dissolve a feather, and it also attacks some metals.

Another article: http://www.motherearthnews.com/homestead...az72jfzfre.aspx

It's just as easy to use cornstarch, chalk, whiting, etc. and a heat gun as it is DE. The question is, if there are advantages using DE over other powdered absorbents. I'm not aware of any, but I'm always open to new information.

I use cornstarch and a heat gun initially, then an acetone soak.

It's reportedly a good organic insecticide, the powdered diatom shells are very sharp, and penetrate insect exoskeletons effectively. I've never thought of it for removing oil..

DE is a good way to kill bed bugs. It will deal with oils but other things will work better.

If not refinishing the entire stock I use whiting with a little heat to speed up the process if the entire stock is being refinished then acetone soak works well followed by alcohol soak. Due be aware that this will drain the stock of just about all the oils both natural and those soaked into the stock.

Actually, lye is either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide. I admit that I did not know that. Sodium hydroxide is the most common form and is what is found in Red Devil Lye used for drain cleaning or paint removal. Both types of lye can be used to make soaps. I used potassium hydroxide many times to neutralize hydroflouric acid during masceration to extract fossilized spores and pollen grains from rocks in Palynology classes, but never knew it was considered lye. You learn something new here all the time.

I don't believe the dry wood ashes saponified the oil on my garage floor because there was no water involved to extract potassium from the wood ash to convert it to potassium hydroxide. I think it simply soaked up the oil better than anything I ever used including washing the spots with lacquer thinner when I could buy good DuPont lacquer thinner for $9.00 for a 5 gallon bucket. Those days are over but wood ashes will always be cheap. I still mean to try it to draw oil out of wood, but it won't be on something valuable the first time. If it works out well, you guys will be the first to know.