Boiling a No.4 Mk. 1

I remove as much cosmo as I can with shop towels, after warming the wood in the sun - the cosmo gets almost liquid.

After that, I've sometimes used soapy water and a paint brush in a shallow tub; once, I used TSP, with similar results. I think there's no substitute for taking your time; no shortcut is likely to do a job as good or as satisfying.

Lou
 
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No real argument with that Lou. This is defiantly a shortcut, but it suited my needs for this rifle.
 
Corpus said:
I have an old Lee Enfield No.4 Mk.1 '48 Maltby that I am about to restore. I want to put her back in as close to "Parade Condition" as I can get without replacing any parts (I'm doing this to satisfy myself, and don't care about "historical value," etc. I just want to put some TLC to the old girl and get her as strak as possible). I've heard that boiling old wood stock pieces can raise gouges and scratches significantly. Has anyone actually done this? And if you have, how much time per piece would you think for a No.4 Enfield? Thanks.
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Boiling gun wood can have some really nasty consequences occasionally. Splitting and cracks, huge warping as it dries out over several months. Steam has fewer bad side effects and actually works better because steam is several hundred degrees warmer than boiling water.

I use an old tea kettle with an automotive heater hose jerry-rigged to the spout. Kettle goes on my coleman camp stove in the garage, and i have 300-400 degree steam that raises dents way better and faster than the wet cloth and iron. It is also more efficient at burning you if you're not careful, so take precautions. The hose becomes way to hot to handle in a very short time. Get some thick gloves with lots of padding or wear more than one pair. Hope this helps.
 
luke-warm water, TSP, and a stiff brush are the way to go if you're into water cleaning. The trick is to not immerse the stock, but to scrub it with the wetted brush.
 
Water is a good thing to avoid IMHO. It swells up the wood and causes cracks. I tried it once and ended up having to fix cracks which became considerably larger due to the water.

Stick to proper furniture stripper. The stuff called 1872 or some other such date seems good.
 
I'm thinking of restoring my old mauser carbine. I've been told oven cleaner works? How would I find out what type of oil or stain to use that would be as close to the original as possible?
 
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