Gents,

I am cleaning up a stock and I want your opinion on how severe this stock is oil soaked. I did the whiting thing with acetone and it did not seem to draw much out. The wood seems to be very solid and in good shape, but it does have that old smell to it and the head appears kind of black. Should I soak the head? More whiting? What do you think?

Thanks,

Scott

It wouldn't hurt to do the whiting thing again. You did not say how long you treated this stock with acetone and whiting.

I had a similarly discolored stock that had a little oil in it. I used powdered marble (calcium carbonate, same as whiting) I got from an art supply store, $8 for an 8 lb bag. I put a couple inches of it in a suitably sized cottage cheese tub, put the stock head in it, wrapped it all up (to keep from making a mess in case it was kicked or something) and put it in a warm corner where it was to be undisturbed. After about 2 months, I took the stock head out and vigorously brushed off the powdered marble that adhered, inspected it, then returned it to the powdered marble for another couple months. After about 4 months total, what oil there had been was gone.

You could rush things, but you won't get as good a result.

Take a knife blade point and lay it on it's side. Place it on one of the flat surfaces on the inside/inletting of the stock.
Press down with some strength and drag the blade backwards so as NOT to cut into the wood. But instead dragging the blade across the surface will lightly compress & burnish the small area.

If there's oil in the wood, that compressed area will immediately look wet. That's the oil in the wood. You can even soak up a bit with a slip of newsprint,, it's usually that 'wet'.
There will be no doubt when you see it.

Slather on another coating of the whiting powder.
I use plain alcohol instead of acetone to make up the paste.
Using acetone doesn't draw any more oil out of the wood than alcohol does. Acetone evaporates in 10seconds or so anyway.
Alcohol evaporates more slowly so you can brush the stuff in a little more briskly if that matters. It's cheaper,,if that matters.
Do the outside and down in the inletting.

Let the coating set undisturbed for a couple weeks.. at least.
Longer is better.
The tightly clinging shell of whiting hard set against the wood surface is what is needed to draw out the oil.
Hang it somewhere and forget about it. Let it do it's thing.

Thanks for the replies.

On my journey in working on double guns and in life the hardest "skill" for me to learn is patience.

I will apply the whiting again to the stock and forget about it.

Thanks for your sound advise!

I'm surprised no one mentioned that it helps a great deal to put your stock in a warm place when using absorbent compounds such as whiting or kitty litter to remove oil from the wood. The warmth brings the oil to the surface. Summer is a great time to do this because you can put the stock in a box with a glass top and accomplish this with free solar heating.

I only use solvent soaks as a last resort, and avoid prolonged soaks because solvents such as acetone or lacquer thinner will damage the lignin and cellulose structure of your wood. Once you are satisfied with your de-oiling, you should get your finish on fairly quickly because traces of oil will continue to migrate to the surface. I don't believe it is possible to get all of the oil out of a stock without damaging the wood.

Thanks for the tip Keith. I have a truck I don’t drive that often, so I put it in there. That should keep it warm!

I am sure we have been here many times before. The method I use to remove the oil from a heavily oil soaked gun stock is heat over an extended time with a method of absorbing the oil as it leaves the wood.
I use an electrically heated gardeners plant propagator. With Clay type Kitty litter to absorb the oil that comes out of the wood so it does not have the chance to flow back in to the wood. Because the heating element is so low there is no chance of the propagator damaging the wood at all. The method is simple place the stock in the propagator and cover the most oiled parts completely with Kitty litter and turn on. Just for information the propagator in the p[hodographs has had gun stocks left heating for the largest part of a year with no ill efects.

Well, I got most of the oil out. Below are pics of the finished product. That whiting compound sure gets nasty when it collects a bunch of oil!

Thanks for the help!

That's the 2 incher I passed on. Looks like it cleaned up nice for you. Great job!