IndianaBoy
Member
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2005
- Messages
- 1,551
And lots of elbow grease....
I had cleaned the bore and action of my Yugo Mauser many times.
The stock retained that 'sticky' feeling of cosmoline and had little globs of it in places. When I took the stock off, I was amazed at the quantity of goo in the rifle.
It took lots of time, mineral spirits and scrubbing before I was ready to sand. And then the sandpaper kept filling up with cosmoline laden sawdust. The stock was too big to put in my oven to cook the cosmoline out.
Evevntually I got it to a point where it was smooth enough and cleaned enough to refinish. Instead of high gloss stains and clear coats I decided to use an old fashioned method.
Several coats of hand rubbed boiled linseed oil, with a light sanding between some of the coats.
The visible finish really isn't starkly different, but if you handle the rifle.. it is night and day.
The wood now feels smooth and robust. The cosmoline made if feel sticky and soft. I didn't want to scrub off the arsenal marks, and they remained. I didn't sand a whole lot. I'm sure there is still some cosmoline in the wood. But it looks and feels (and smells) a lot better now.
It was nice to get all the wood furniture off. The simplicity of these rifles is refreshing. The trigger is composed of two pieces of metal and a spring. It got a lot better without all that goo in there too. Still heavy and creepy, but it is a battle rifle. Overall I am pleased. I have enough linseed oil and mineral spirits to clean up dozens more rifles..... Time for a C and R license?
I had cleaned the bore and action of my Yugo Mauser many times.
The stock retained that 'sticky' feeling of cosmoline and had little globs of it in places. When I took the stock off, I was amazed at the quantity of goo in the rifle.
It took lots of time, mineral spirits and scrubbing before I was ready to sand. And then the sandpaper kept filling up with cosmoline laden sawdust. The stock was too big to put in my oven to cook the cosmoline out.
Evevntually I got it to a point where it was smooth enough and cleaned enough to refinish. Instead of high gloss stains and clear coats I decided to use an old fashioned method.
Several coats of hand rubbed boiled linseed oil, with a light sanding between some of the coats.
The visible finish really isn't starkly different, but if you handle the rifle.. it is night and day.
The wood now feels smooth and robust. The cosmoline made if feel sticky and soft. I didn't want to scrub off the arsenal marks, and they remained. I didn't sand a whole lot. I'm sure there is still some cosmoline in the wood. But it looks and feels (and smells) a lot better now.
It was nice to get all the wood furniture off. The simplicity of these rifles is refreshing. The trigger is composed of two pieces of metal and a spring. It got a lot better without all that goo in there too. Still heavy and creepy, but it is a battle rifle. Overall I am pleased. I have enough linseed oil and mineral spirits to clean up dozens more rifles..... Time for a C and R license?