Oil Stain Removal

[flintriflesmith]

I saw this product on one of those home care shows and wondered if the poultice intended for stone counter tops would also work for sucking oil out of gun stocks. Sooner or later we all run into an old gun were the wood is practically saturated with gun oil. I have been guilty of using some very dangerous chemicals to draw/flush out the oil but always worried about the fumes.

This stuff forms a clay like cover that takes 24-48 hours to work but then you just crack the clay and peel it off. Might be worth a try.

http://stonecare.com/SCI-Browse-Products/OPP-Stain-Remover-Oil-Stains-Pint

Gary

[eddie]

Greetings, i am new to this site i really enjoy it i hope to build a southern rifle soon. i know that baking soda mixed with water will draw oil and other stains from marble clock cases, it would be worth a try and no doubt woul not harm the wood.

[WadePatton]

Off the top of my head (without doing a search and pulling the reference thread into this one as i should do), I can tell you that there is an old tried and true practice of lye* (IIRC)soaking oil-saturated gunstocks to remove oils.  

*"whiting" is what i was thinking of.  not lye. 

here members share plenty of oil removal methods, pick one:

http://americanlongrifles.org/forum/index.php?topic=14721.0

[PPatch]

That home care product is very likely nothing more than calcium bentonite clay. Potters use it to make porcelain clay bodies and to adjust the melting temperatures for glazes. It is also used in cat liter. It is super absorbant and you can get a bag of it at any pottery supply store. It will cake up when soaking up oils and water.

dave

[tyro]

Kitty litter(without deodorizer!) is first thing I thought of...It is indeed bentonite and seems to be inert, but I don't know what the noxious " deodorizers" would do to wood. If it was pulverized a bit and build a little dam around it it may improve absorbency .TY

[heinz]

Wyoming Bentonite clay works very well and is also a superb binder for sand casting (but you probably knew that).  You can get it at foundry supply places.  It can be mixed with water and alcohol ( 100 proof 'shine) to make a paste and it shrinks a bit as it dries

[TMerkley]

A friend of mine does a lot of refinishing of firearms.  He starts out with a "CitrusStrip" that is availble at Walmart etc... then rinse with water repeat until top layers are removed and for what has absorbed he dries the wood imediately after rinsing with a propane heater which then draws the oils out from the grain and wipes off as it comes out.  Heat gun would work as well.  This process is repeated over and over until the desired result is obtained.  You can also use acetone to remove the oils from the surface.  It would break it down rather quickly and keep it dry as well.  Some processes just can't be sped up. 

[PPatch]

Kitty litter(without deodorizer!) is first thing I thought of...It is indeed bentonite and seems to be inert, but I don't know what the noxious " deodorizers" would do to wood. If it was pulverized a bit and build a little dam around it it may improve absorbency .TY

To make clay inert one calcines it, fires it to around 1200 degrees. This drives off chemical water that is bound with the individual clay particles. In the case of cat liter it is pelleted first (water added and made into tiny clay balls) then fired. We used to calcine white lead too for safer handling when incorporating it into glazes.

[WadePatton]

Bentonite Clay in the form of powder/dust is used by well drillers around here, that's where i got a bag.  driller gave it to me (probably doesn't cost a lot).  came in a handy lifetime sized bag.

it may be purer than the kitty/oildry versions. 

[b bogart]

I have just used Easy Off oven cleaner. Spray on, let stand for a day or so, rinse off, repeat as necessary. It has worked for me. Gloves and eye protection required.