Wood stock cleaning

[smle-man]

The forestock on my Ishapore 2A1 came apart (more or less) at the range yesterday. I realized that as I fired it, the forestock was moving fore and aft. when I got home I pulled it down and the bedding points around the receiver were so oil soaked that the wood was crumbling away. This is a sad state of affairs because the wood itself is a beautiful mahogany color and on the exterior in beautiful shape. I have an old Ishapore #1 walnut forestock laying about that is sound but incredibly filthy. I had thoughts of cleaning and sanding it and staining it to something to approximate the rest of the wood but the replacement forestock is impregnated with dirt. It is so thick I can scrape it off with my thumbnail and this is after using heavy grit sandpaper to try and remove the crud. What are your thoughts of what to use to get the impregnated dirt out of it? I tried acetone but it had little effect on it.

Any recommendations?

[TRAP55]

You can save your old stock with glass bedding compound. But first, you have to leach the oil out of the wood so the bedding compound can adhere to it.
I had the same problem on justin4fun's Turk stock I repaired and refinished. Lacking an acetone soaking tank, I used spray can brake cleaner, hosing off the oil soaked wood, then letting it sit in the sun. Soon as the wood darkened up again, I repeated that. Two cans later, it was good to go.
The brake cleaner pulled it out of the wood just like it does on a steel brake drum.
If you want to use the walnut forestock, stand it on end in a pan of lacquer thinner, and wet scrub it down with 0000 steel wool.

[Father Ted]

Did the draws crumble? If you have any woodworking skills you can rebuild the draws on these forends, armorers used to do it regularly. Pair away the old ones and peg in new ones. Peter Laidler did a tutorial on Milsurps.com and coached me through it. I'm sure if you do a search on there it will come up as well as pics of my rebuild.
As for the dirty stock, I would start off with mineral spirits and a scrubby plastic stripping pad that you can get from some paint stores. It's like plastic Brillo. Then I'd move onto mineral spirits and fine steel wool.
Some people soak them but being a woodworker by trade I stay away from emersing wood in liquid unless you want to introduce twist to it. Good luck.
Cheers

[Enfield47]

I pulled it down and the bedding points around the receiver were so oil soaked that the wood was crumbling away.

Sorry to hear that, that original wood is so beautiful. Now I'm a little worried about my P14 stock since it's oil soaked too. Maybe I'll stop after four or five BLO treatments.

The lacquer thinner and 0000 steel wool will do a good job of stripping the grime off without taking any of the wood off like sanding will. I've not used mineral spirits on a stock before but I've had good results using it on stained wood to remove the finish. Either of these should be fine on the wood and not raise the grain.

[smle-man]

Thanks for the advice guys. I will try the lacquer thinner trick. I have absolutely zero woodworking skills so rebuilding the stock, at least for me, is a no go. I will keep it on hand and if I have an opportunity to have it brought back to life I will jump on it.

[Enfield47]

Maybe you and Father Ted could get together and fix your stock since he has done it before. It looks like you're only a couple of hours apart so you might be able to do it on a weekend.

[smle-man]

I haven't gotten around to cleaning and refinishing the stock for the 2A1 but for the interim I cut and fitted spacers in the stock where the wood crumbled. I cut them from my favorite material - an empty diet Pepsi can. I fit the spacers between the stock and receiver and also at the end of the stock between the butt stock socket and back end of the forearm.

I took it to the range today and no movement after 30 rounds. It took about 5 rounds to settle in, the first five shot horribly low but after that in the black.

I'll get busy on the replacement forearm as I am sure the aluminum spacers are a temporary measure.

[Father Ted]

Well Smleman, you are a true trailblazer... No one else has ever done that before. The usual go to is beer cans ! I've seen some funny threads on Milsurps about people bedding there rifles with all sorts of foreign objects , from fore mentioned material and old credit cards
Cheers

[Enfield47]

Pretty ingenious fix there. I wouldn't trust it for too long, but it sounds like it will get you by until you can fix the wood.

[Crunch130]

http://parallaxscurioandrelicfirearmsforums.yuku.com/forums/101/CR-stock-cleaning

All kinds of handy info for cleaning oily, dirty stocks and making repairs.

Crunch

[fal_762x51]

http://www.surplusrifleforum.com/viewforum.php?f=83

One name. Candyman.

[justin4fun]

You can save your old stock with glass bedding compound. But first, you have to leach the oil out of the wood so the bedding compound can adhere to it.
I had the same problem on justin4fun's Turk stock I repaired and refinished. Lacking an acetone soaking tank, I used spray can brake cleaner, hosing off the oil soaked wood, then letting it sit in the sun. Soon as the wood darkened up again, I repeated that. Two cans later, it was good to go.
The brake cleaner pulled it out of the wood just like it does on a steel brake drum.
If you want to use the walnut forestock, stand it on end in a pan of lacquer thinner, and wet scrub it down with 0000 steel wool.

You must not know how to work with wood very well because steel wool will make it grainy. Just like your hakim.