I have recently acquired a pre-war Webley & Scott that is rather nice. However, it seems some idiot soaked the head of the stock in some light oil--perhaps a lemon oil or something similar--it's not gun oil. It has penetrated all the way through the wood. I've been using heat lamps to bring it to the surface to wipe off but it just never stops. comes out in the inletting also. I don't want to refinish the stock. Would placing it in a vacumn chamber do the job? I have access to one. Would it do damage to the old oil finish?

A chalk solution can work nicely, it dries and draws the oil out of the wood and into the chalk, which can then be carded off.

Don't worry about the old finish, you can clean off all the old dirt and re-oil it.

Whiting compound from your local paint store. Pack it around the oil soaked area and apply heat, don't get it hotter than your hand can touch. Several applications maybe needed, but with patience you will work it out.

Jim

Joe,
A vacuum chamber would most likely warp or twist your stock. I would guess that the mystery oil's viscosity is too high to just drip out so it would need to be heated. Heating the stock and them placing it in a vacuum chamber will cause all sorts of nasties in regards to the grain structure. Plus you will need to keep the chamber heated to draw out all the old oil. Stay with the above ideas, it may take some time, but it works.
Chris

Would the Whiting compound be difficult to remove from the inletting?

Dave Wolf in Waco Texas uses vacuum to remove oil from stocks. Dave is one of the best I've ever seen at refinishing gunstocks, his work is above top notch. He's done several stocks of mine...and has use the vacuum to remove old oil, whatever technique he uses..it works beautifully.

Whiting mixed with MEK to the consistency of heavy cream works well. Paint on a coat and let dry throughly. Brush/blow off the dirty whiting and reapply. When the coating dries white, you know all the oil is gone. Acetone works too, but MEK dries slower, giving more time for the solvent to pull the oil out of the wood.

OB

Yes, I'm sure that'll work but I don't want to destroy the original oil finish.

I'm thinking you're already past the point of worrying over the old finish, the damage is done. Get the oil out of the wood, clean things up well, and apply some new boiled linseed. A final coat or two over the entire stock, and you'll never know there was a problem.

I you want to keep the finish intact give this a try,...I did it once before and it worked quite well.
Get a roll of toilet paper and wrap a big wad of it around the head of the stock and also push paper in all the inletted crevices,...basically put it all around were the oil is soaked in, then wrap it all with tin foil, stick it in the oven at low temp. about 100-150 deg F and leave it there for a hour or so,... then take it out replace the paper and repeat the whole thing until the paper is not drawing any more oil,...you'll know what I mean when you take it out the first time, the paper will be yellow from the oil
This wont harm the finish, just don't get it too hot and make sure you tell the wife or she may crank the oven up and stick in that pot roast when your not looking!

CJ

Joe, you could also try C. J.'s method but in the microwave instead of the oven.

Beware though because the stock can catch fire if you over do it. Rumor has it
it happened to CC/DT once.

JC

C.J., that sounds similar to what I've been doing. I've been heating the wood with 200 watt shop lights--set about 3" from the wood. Every few minutes I wipe off the oil and let it heat again. Today I removed the forend iron and used two lights. The oil literally dripped off on the first heating. I've also been using a heat gun but being careful not to heat the wood too much. My goodness! I've never seen so much oil. I may have to resort to some of the more radical suggestions above but will see where this leads.

You can use Whiting in its dry form and blow it off with an air hose or brush it off. What ever type of oil you have will wrak havoc if it stays in the stock. I would say a refinish would be a better alternative than letting the stock become soft.

Jim

Joe, I was not kidding about the microwave. Oily matters tend to heat up very
quickly in them so you can save a lot of time. You can try a minute at a time
and see how it comes along. You can even leave the foil out of the method
and just wrap it in the paper towels.

JC

I once got a 1/4 cup of oil out of the head of a big Lindner 10ga, steel barreled waterfowler. I employed the toaster oven method until no more dripped out then the Acetone soak.

Whiting works but is a PIA to get out of the inletting.

A fellow I know gets oil out of his stocks by putting the head in cat litter and putting the whole mess in his car trunk. He lives in New Mexico and I suppose his trunk gets hot. Probably would work in Amarillo, too. He just shifts the position of the stock when he thinks of it, and closes the trunk again. I think he said he did it for a couple of weeks. Daryl

Joe:

I have used the heat lamp method a lot. They will sometimes ooze oil for weeks. Usually follow this up with the acetone soak, but there's no chance of salvaging the original finish with this method.

Roy

When removing the oil don't we run the risk of removing the natural oils and making the stock more brittle? Just a thought.