I used to use acetone but was told by Brad Bachelder after a year or so the oil down in the stock will come back to the surface. He uses some sort of hot [ I believe around 250 degrees- not sure ] box with some kind chemical- he didn't say what. He said the fumes were dangerous to breath and he had to be very careful. Anyways, I gave him a gun with 15 lb. triggers to lighten and to remove the oil in the stock. Hope to have it back soon. Paul
It is absolutely true that deeply oiled stocks will have residual oil rise to the surface again in time. I've de-oiled some stocks in order to do refinishing or repairs, and then set them aside for 5-6 months and found I had to de-oil again in order to be sure that glue, epoxy, or finish would not be compromised. I always start with household ammonia because ammonia will saponify oils, and the resulting soap is water soluble. Follow this with a wash with detergent or TSP and rinse and dry. This inexpensive first step gets a lot of the surface oil and grime and makes the much more expensive solvents like acetone, lacquer thinner, etc. last a lot longer before becoming too contaminated and dirty. Dirty solvent becomes a stain you probably don't want. The low oven treatment with the wood wrapped in paper towels also gets a lot of oil out before resorting to costly solvents. I've even put oily wood in a box of cat litter (not used) and put the whole works in the cab of my truck in the summer to use solar heating. I've read that corn meal also works well. Just try to keep the temperature below 160 degrees. I tried the microwave oven heating method once and had a forearm split from too rapid heating. Fortunately, after de-oiling, Titebond II made a virtually invisible repair.
