Cleaning wood stocks

[rocky_lange]

My girlfriend's aunt's husband passed away and for helping her sell the collection, she gave me a very good deal on a Husqvarna 30-06 that is somewhere around 50 years old (she wanted $200 but I paid her $250 and I still feel guilty about that. I sold the Pecar scope that came with it for $325). The metal cleaned up very nicely, but the stock has some dark spots where it would have been handled (mostly around the palm swell area). I assume that sweat and skin oils caused this darkening. What would you suggest that I use to clean the wood? It appears to have only been oil finished from the factory with no type of lacquer finish. Oh, and the dirty spots are in the checkered areas.

Rocky

[royinidaho]

Rocky,

I wonder???? Marks of use may be a good thing if you're going to keep it. For instance, blood on the sling, scratches on the stock where it was held against a tree to make the shot on that 8 point and such things give a lot of character.

To attempt to answer your question. If its an oil finish and the "dirty" spots are in the checkering area it would seem that the grain end cuts allowed body oil to soak in. If so, recheckering may be in order.

I know of no material/solution that could be used that most probably not cause other color mismatches.:confused:

[J E Custom]

I would first strip any finish with airplane stripper/paint remover.

Then wash with water and use 000or 0000 steel wool
to clean.

After allowing to dry use the 0000 steel wool to clean the stock.

Buy some Beachwood Casey walnut stock stain and darken the
rest of the stock until it matches the dark area's.

Then using the 0000 steel wool apply the true oil or formbys
tung oil with several coats or until you get the results you
want.

This will give it the classic hand rubbed look and hide the dark
spots.

Good Luck
J E CUSTOM