best way to clean and maintain wood stocks

[Guest HvyMtl]

Ok, what is the best way to clean, without damaging the "patina" of a wood stock.

I dont want to strip it or refinish. Just lightly clean, and then protect.

So, no oven cleaner...

[Guest BEARMAN]

I use Formby's lemon oil polish, to clean and protect my wooden stocks.

Works great...you can get it @ Home Depot or Lowes.

[Guest mr_b8908]

i like to give my mil-surp rifles a fine coat of BLO or Danish Oil

[Mike.357]

my Mosin stock was the ugliest I had ever seen.

I used 0000 Steel Wool and this stuff called Arrow wood finish. It made the stock look a lot better but did not lose any character.

[Bigiron]

There are many methods of working on old gun stocks. Cleaning methods depend upon how many blemishes/crud is in/on the stock. I have 5 mosins and finished each one differently. Each one has its own character. I used oven cleaner on one due to horrible cosmoline and scarring problems. I noticed that you live in Nashville. You are welcome to come by and see my mosins, if it will help you to decide which route you want to take.

[Guest HvyMtl]

Thanks Bigiron, I might take you up on it. What did you do which was the least?

Just want to take off a bit of the dirt and preserve what I have. The steel wool is too much.

I dont know what the "BLO" stuff is.

I will look at the Formby's. Though, I thought Lemon Pledge was not the way to go...

[Mike.357]

The steel wool is too much.

the steel wool is perfect. it does not take much of anything off, rather smooths it.

[Tempest455]

the steel wool is perfect. it does not take much of anything off, rather smooths it.

Ditto, I used finer and finer grades of steel wool on one of my Mosin's and it turned out very nice!

[leroy]

Ok, what is the best way to clean, without damaging the "patina" of a wood stock.

I dont want to strip it or refinish. Just lightly clean, and then protect.

So, no oven cleaner...

We use oooo steel wool and truoil.

I like this cleaner too; per Bearman's post:

....I use Formby's lemon oil polish, to clean and protect my wooden stocks.

Works great...you can get it @ Home Depot or Lowes. ...

Lemon oil is good stuff. We use it on banjo and guitar fingerboards. If things are really dirty, you might want to use Murphys Oil Soap to clean the stock up first.

Hope this heips

Kind regards,

Leroy

[MacGyver]

There are many methods of working on old gun stocks. Cleaning methods depend upon how many blemishes/crud is in/on the stock. I have 5 mosins and finished each one differently. Each one has its own character. I used oven cleaner on one due to horrible cosmoline and scarring problems. I noticed that you live in Nashville. You are welcome to come by and see my mosins, if it will help you to decide which route you want to take.

We need to see some pictures sometime.

[Guest mr_b8908]

+1 on the murphy's oil soap! not too harsh, but it will clean the crud off of the wood for sure

[gregintenn]

I've read about the wonders of a product called "Snake Oil". I cannot vouch for this product personally as I've never tried it, but the good folks on a Savage collectors forum swear by it.

[Bigiron]

OK. MacGyver has shamed me. I'll dig out my Mosins' tomorrow and get a "family pic" and post. I warn in advance that my photo skills leave a lot to be desired.

+1 on Murphy's soap, altho I don't think it cleaned very much.

0000 steel wool smooths and lightly scrubs, just don't use so much muscle.

BLO-boiled linseed oil. Use when you want an oil-finished stock. You want light coats rubbed in with the fingers, I use rubber gloves. Wipe off excess with clean rag, let dry, apply more coats as desired. When dry, you can polish to a sheen. Very durable finish, and can be "repaired" by repeating above procedure. if you don't like your result, strip off the BLO with Denatured Alcohol and re-apply BLO. The wood is most likely birch, so you're not going to make it look like fancy walnut, regardless of what method you use. Refinishing is fun, and kinda hard to screw up(even tho I've tried).

[Guest mr_b8908]

for my mosins i stripped the shellac with denatured alcohol and the applied numerous coats of danish oil, and blo and they have come out quite nice I will post a pic up of my ex sniper i refinished last year. The finish is really strong and resistant to heat, scratches, and water. here is a family pic

[Bigiron]

Nice collection!

[Guest HvyMtl]

Niiice. Mr b8908, where you buy them?

Couldnt find the Forby's so I am going with the Murphy's oil.

[Ebow1]

I'm guessing all of these things would work just as well for cleaning and preserving wood grips on a 1911. Am I right?

[Guest BEARMAN]

I'm guessing all of these things would work just as well for cleaning and preserving wood grips on a 1911. Am I right?

Yep, should work fine on pistol grips too.

[Guest mr_b8908]

Niiice. Mr b8908, where you buy them?

Couldnt find the Forby's so I am going with the Murphy's oil.

Well here and there, I got the middle 3 mosins from the outpoast aromory, good price on the M44 but the 91-30's were a lil steep, the bottom one is a 1944 ex sniper from AIM (GREAT COMPANY) and the steyr m95 is from J&G(ALSO A GREAT C&R COMPANY) I cant wait to get my C&R, but I must ad that Lavergne Pawn and Jewelry does transfers for $25 cash, its the best deal I have found. If you go there to get somethin done, pm me and ill give you my name so you can lettem kno I sent you

on the shellac finish i just rub them "eversolightly" with a lil BLO an 0000 steel wool to buff it smooth and clean off the cosmo

[Bigiron]

You can also strip off the shellac(easily done), repair the "hickies" from the stock, then mix shellac and red food dye and refinish. Will come out looking like a new Mosin.

[GKar]

Had real good luck using Maguire's x2.0 micro-fine car polish to clean grips and stocks, then using Howard's Feed-n-Wax to protect. Wally World has the Maguire's in the car wax section, and Home Depot usually has the Howard's with furniture polishes.

Recently put a protective finish on a Springer M1A stock - 5 coats low-gloss tung oil w/ 0000 wool rubdown after each. Turned out very well.