doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cleaning dirt, grime and grunge off an old stock

Believe it or not, a great product to use is Endust spray furniture polish. It is made for this very purpose. I have an ancient can of it that resides on my workbench.



Be gentle, and it won't hurt a thing.

IMPORTANT: Don't let your wife find out you have this and know how to use it!

Curl

Before you begin to clean a wood finish, it's important to know what finish you have. I like mild cleaners like Murphy's Oil Soap for light general cleaning. Lemon oil is a little stronger, and the Endust mentioned above is a citrus cleaner. Rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol won't hurt many finishes, but will totally remove a shellac finish. I really like using an ammonia solution on seriously grungy stocks that are heavily oiled because ammonia turns gun oil and skin oils into a water soluble soap. This must be thoroughly rinsed off of the wood, and I only use it on stocks that need de-oiling and a refinish. Mineral spirits and turpentine is a fairly mild solvent that won't harm varnishes, but they will begin to remove some oil finishes if left on the surface long enough.

Abrasives such as pumice or rottenstone have their place, and used with BLO or another type of cleaner, will certainly cut heavier grunge. But they will also cut the surface of the finish. Depending upon how coarse the abrasive is, it may dull the finish. Anyone who doubts that Scotchbrite is very abrasive should try using it to clean bug guts off of a windshield. The stuff will scratch glass. Don't ask me how I know.

The polished sewing machine cabinets I mentioned are a shellac finish, much akin to a French Polish. When used as per Fenman's instructions it does not remove the shellac but simply spreads it around & redistributes it. It works I've used it but as I said not on a gum stock. It works very similar to the "Restore a Finish" type products but is a home brew mix.

Absolutely right Miller. I have found that old shellac finishes that look like an alligator hide can be cleaned and dissolved with alcohol to the point that you are actually using the old shellac to refinish the stock. I often wonder if that counts as refinishing since it really is the original finish.

That product contains ethyl benzene. I would use it outside or with ventilation, letting the surface "dry" before bringing it back inside. I waiting for the summer to use it.

Use traditional furniture cleaner 50 50 Turpentine and Vinegar shake well before use and use a soft cloth it works well.

murphys oil soap...ah hear...

personally, ah don clean nuttin...

part of my training included hangin out wid ah period antiques dealer...his view was dat old dirt, grease an grime is worth money...

Your antique dealer friend is wrong Ed. A clean antique item in nice condition will always be worth more than the same item in dirty, grungy condition. What will hurt value is improper cleaning that damages or removes the original finish.

If you don't take the time to determine what finish you have, and subsequently use the wrong cleaning chemicals or techniques, you can do more harm than good. There has been advice given right here in this Thread that would damage a stock finish.

well, this antiques dealer also did repairs an reproductions...once, ah was hangin out in his shop watchin him do wood repairs to an exquisitely, gaudy double barreled flintlock shotgun...that had a brass inlay behind the cocks that read "19" and "N"...ah had to ax what that ment and he replied...the "N" identified the gun as being the property of the emperor Napoleon and 19 signified that it was number 19 of a group of matching hunting guns...as i stood there in awe, with my mouth open and eyes bugged out like ah frog, the phone rang...

roger, dat was his name, seemed annoyed at the caller, wid much back an forth...finally he said, i will take care of it an hung up the phone...he gathered up some tools an stuff, put them in his tool bag,,,an while headin out the door, turned and asked me if i wanted to come along...shore ah said...

seems like we were headin over to his ex wife's house to fix sum furniture...when we arrived, this rather attractive women wid red hair was waitin on the porch, with her arms folded...o roger she exclaimed, you have to help me...i will try he replied...its the headboard, you half to fix it now she said...so roger, the red head an I awl went upstairs to the bedroom...an shore nuf, here is this rather elegant wooden headboard, wid ah 3/8 inch hole in it...even I could tell that it was ah bullet hole...

so roger, he say, was anybody hurt? an she replies, thank goodness, no...an roger, he say, so watt happened, an why the panic to git this repaired? so she say, well...my boy friend, he catch me in bed wid ah nutter man, an you gotta fix dis befo my hus band, he git home...

so ah thinkin, there is many kinds o dirt, an sum need to be removed pronto...