doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Oil soaked stock and forearm.

I too have used acetone to remove oil from stock heads. Many times i have seen people cleaning shotguns, and squirting oil into the firing pin holes in the breech face, thinking they are doing good in maintaining their shotgun.
Recently i was given a nice old sidelock side by side, the stock head wasn't too bad with oil, a relatively quick soak with acetone did the trick. I have used this method several times and never had a problem with cracks, unless the acetone had caused previously glued splits to reappear.
Some people in this thread have mentioned using oven cleaner, if an oven cleaner contains caustic soda (i am not sure what its called in the usa) it will darken hardwood including walnut markedly.

I have used the acetone process on several stocks with god results. However I was in a musical instrument repair shop where they fix and refinish a lot of stringed instruments i.e. violins, cello, stand up bass. They were abhorred that I would soak a fine piece of wood in acetone. They use ozone heat lamps to draw out the oil saying they would not introduce any other substance in case it warped the wood or altered the tone of the instrument. They offered to do one of my gun stocks but I haven't taken them up on it yet.

Tamid, i used an electric heat gun, the type you use to strip paint off wood. I used it on its low setting and as the oil oozed out, i wiped it away with a rag damp with white spirit or thinners.

It certainly worked well.

Curious ...I can't help but wonder why people over oil their violins when they take them out after birds ,I mean a little will go a long ways ...

Seriously though , nice wood is nice wood ,but wood used in instrument making is not the same wood used in gunstocks nor is the abuse it receives over the years,whether that be from liberal use of oil and solvents or the rainstorm we get caught in while out on the country ....if we hunted in a concert hall I imagine the procedures could overlap ,whether that be the initial finishing and restoration that may follow .

approaching the restoration of a thin and hollow antique musical instrument ,assembled with hide glue I would never consider a harsh chemical ....its day and night really

A gunsmith I trust who's been in business for 40 years working on fine doubles claims the acetone only takes out the first 1/4" or so of oil. He heats the stock with some type [ won't say what type ]of acid laying in the bottom of the closet. The heat and vapors draw out all the oil. He claimed years ago he used acetone but when the job came back after a year and he's redoing it for nothing he found a different method - his current one.

Newf

Oil soaked wood is oil soaked wood. What we try to do is remove the oil in the least destructive manner so not to damage the wood structure, not warp the wood and prevent over drying it. How the wood is to be used has little bearing on the process of removing the oil.

http://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=341427&Searchpage=6&Main=29920&Words=wonko%27s+brew&Search=true#Post341427

have another day
Dr.WtS

I'm betting he knows this as Newf is a professional stock man. He has done several jobs for me (a couple were major jobs) and does excellent work.

I cleaned up an old muzzle loader a few months ago with an acetone bath.


Soaking in acetone. I use a sheet of tinfoil over the top to seal the bath container. In this case the container is a plastic window box for flowers. For shorter box lock stocks I use an disposable aluminum turkey baking pan.


The stock drying out, sorry I don�t have a better photo.


The gun put back together and awaiting some new percussion nipples.

I�ve done a bunch of guns this way and I�m always happy with the results. However, I am not a perfectionist. Especially when I know that come rain, sleet or snow I�ll be taking the gun into the field.

Steve

Looks great Steve. What else did you do to it? Stain? Linseed oil? True oil?