I love the smell of Cosmoline in the morning...

Spanky

Spanky

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Well I recently acquired an All-matching No4 mk 2 Fazakerly Enfield with the matching bayonet and scabbard... so after a couple weeks of looking at it and putting it off I decided to remove all the cosmoline. I spent about 6 hours soaking the parts in scaldingly hot water, and removed about 3 pounds of grease from this rifle... used a whole roll of paper towel, and roughly 300 Q tips. The rifle looks and feels great now!

The only part I wasn't able to take apart was the bolt (for which I guess I need a special tool to dismantle it?) Does anyone know where I can buy one of these tools in Canada ?

Cheers, and happy collecting

John
 
I'm picking up a Carcano 91/38 in a week or so and it's caked with cosmoline. I planned on soaking the metal parts in scalding water to get the gunk off too, but I'm wondering how to do the wood.

I'm afraid of ruining the original finish or water logging the wood if I run it under a hot hot tap for a while.

I know there are literally hundreds of tutorials for cosmoline removal, but this isn't a shotty SKS I'm dealing with. I wan to make sure I dont ruin the wood, how do I get the cosmoline out of it?
 
Skippy said:
I'm picking up a Carcano 91/38 in a week or so and it's caked with cosmoline. I planned on soaking the metal parts in scalding water to get the gunk off too, but I'm wondering how to do the wood.

I'm afraid of ruining the original finish or water logging the wood if I run it under a hot hot tap for a while.

I know there are literally hundreds of tutorials for cosmoline removal, but this isn't a shotty SKS I'm dealing with. I wan to make sure I dont ruin the wood, how do I get the cosmoline out of it?
Click to expand...

When I did my Enfield (and this is a $600 rifle...) I took out all the parts and washed them one by one, then soaked the 4 wood pieces and the receiver/barrel in the scalding water for about an hour... what happened was all the cosmoline was sweated out of the wood. When I took them out and cleaned them off, they kept "sweating" little droplets of cosmoline, which I wiped off.

The result was that my wood was a little dried out, so I rubbed it with oil and now it looks gorgeous, and the natural oils in the wood make the grain look very nice. and it feels nice and smooth, as opposed to sticky like it was with cosmo all over it. I think unless it has a lacquer or "clear coat" finish you can safely put the wood in hot water without ruining it.

Cheers
John
 
A good way to remove cosmo is to put your parts in a aluminum turkey roaster and put them in your oven on low. Let them sit and the cosmoline just sweats out of the wood. Metal can be washed up with varsol or brake cleaner. Wood doesn't like chemicals so much, I just use an oven on them.
 
wobbles99 said:
A good way to remove cosmo is to put your parts in a aluminum turkey roaster and put them in your oven on low. Let them sit and the cosmoline just sweats out of the wood. Metal can be washed up with varsol or brake cleaner. Wood doesn't like chemicals so much, I just use an oven on them.
Click to expand...

This is best done when your wife is out of the house.
It is a good idea to send her to a spa for the day, then if she notices a strange odour when she gets home she won't want to get all sweaty while killing you so will hopefully ignore your indiscretion.:D
 
I was thinking about running the water hot in the washtub and just holding the metal under the faucet until the cosmo runs off... Pouring kettle fulls of boiling water thru the barrel and reciever.

It's the wood I dont know about. Will it damage the wood terribly to have scalding hot water run over it at high faucet pressure? Will the stock get waterlogged and rotten?
 
Skippy said:
I was thinking about running the water hot in the washtub and just holding the metal under the faucet until the cosmo runs off... Pouring kettle fulls of boiling water thru the barrel and reciever.

It's the wood I dont know about. Will it damage the wood terribly to have scalding hot water run over it at high faucet pressure? Will the stock get waterlogged and rotten?
Click to expand...

I doubt the wood will get waterlogged or rotten. Just make sure you dry the wood out for a few hours before re-assembling the rifle

cheers
John
 
Tool (improvised)

You can fashion one from a piece of heavy wall steel tubing that fits over the firing pin.
Unscrew the bolthead and try to slip the tubing over the firing pin. If it fits, get a bench grinder and scallop two cuts on the top of the tubing so as to leave out two opposed metal prongs; try them on the bolt and adjust with a small file.
When done, heat the other end of the tube red-hot and bend it just enough to give you leverage.
Slip the tool over the firing pin and unscrew the retainer. Beware of the spring!
PP. :)
 
for the wood scrub it in hot water in the bath tub, let it soak and keep scrubbing. i use floor saop to break it up. and if it keeps coming out i use easy off oven cleaner. i spray it on and let it soak in for a few minutes and then scrub out in teh tub. seems to work pretty good.
 
So what do you guys do with the cosmoline after the gun's cleaned? It didn't feel right to just thow it all away when I was done so I've been waterproofing my workboots with it. Any other uses out hter?
 
The Frogge said:
So what do you guys do with the cosmoline after the gun's cleaned? It didn't feel right to just thow it all away when I was done so I've been waterproofing my workboots with it. Any other uses out hter?
Click to expand...

:confused: Are you kidding? This is filthy old grease that has been caked on to these rifles for decades... I just want to get rid of it any way I can (scraping, washing, etc)
Although there may be other uses for old used cosmoline. for instance, it may go well on triscuit crackers with a fine Chablis, or you can use it as chap-stick :D

cheers
John
 
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