Opps, not cosmoline vs heat gun

lone-wolf

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I apparently suck at removing cosmoline from wood.
So I took a heat gun to this stock to melt the cosmoline, and it bubbled up and went hard like you see in the picture.
I thought it's supposed to heat up and melt off? Not bubble and harden back up.
 
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you sure that was cosmoline that bubbled and not the shelac like varnish on these guns?...I've seen varnish do that.
 
I honestly have no idea. How do I tell?
I thought it was just harden cosmoline.
I am a complete newbie when it comes to wood and what goes on it.
 
I think it was the varnish man ....a heat gun will ruin it like that.....varish with a bit of cosmoline will feel kind of sticky...it'll clean off, the cosmoline that is theres difrent solvents you can use I've used wd40 and kerosene ...but I'de say its to late for that you'll have to sand it and oil it or varnish it now.
 
That is deffinately damaged varnish/shelac. Strange though, I used a heat gun on my yugo, and it drew the cosmoline out very nicely. Although it took a few hours to finaly suck it all out.

You will have to sand it and restain now. make sure to get all of the excess shelac off though otherwise it will finish rough.
 
I wanted to refinish it, so not all bad.
How do I remove the bubbly and non-bubbly shellac now? Just sand both?

Here's a couple pictures of cleaner looking parts of the stock.
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sanding is about the only way, be carefull not to over do it and sand to much ....I've seen so many ruined stocks that were over sanded.
 
That is deffinately damaged varnish/shelac. Strange though, I used a heat gun on my yugo, and it drew the cosmoline out very nicely. Although it took a few hours to finaly suck it all out.

You will have to sand it and restain now. make sure to get all of the excess shelac off though otherwise it will finish rough.

Yugo M59/66 have oiled stocks "not varnish" thats why you were ok.

Why would you remove the cosmo anyway its not bad for the wood. It problay helps it more then anything.
 
Hey man,

Stop what you are doing!!!:p

Grab a can of brake clean and a 3M scuff pad, go outside and spray the stock down and the shellac/cosmoline will usually rub right off...

Cheers

Ryan
 
Hey man,

Stop what you are doing!!!:p

Grab a can of brake clean and a 3M scuff pad, go outside and spray the stock down and the shellac/cosmoline will usually rub right off...

Cheers

Ryan
Dude, it's cold out though.
Looks like a white Christmas though, if it stays like this the rest of the winter I'll be happy.
 
Dude, it's cold out though.
Looks like a white Christmas though, if it stays like this the rest of the winter I'll be happy.

Come on now 'Princess'... your from Eastern PEI; it snows here in June!:p

You must be bored down in LP; takin the heat gun to you poor old SKS... what did it ever do to you?

Seriously though brake cleaner will strip the finish right off with just a little bit of elbow grease and a scuff pad. I've done a couple of old 91/30's and an M44 that had the shellac flaking off and they cleaned up nice.
 
If it's shellack, you can remove it with rubber gloves, 000 steel wool pads soaked in methylic alcohol and a bit of muscle oil. Methanol melts shellack.
In fact, you could take a fresh shellack mix and reapply it over scratched old shellack to even it out; that's what they usually do on refurbs.
PP.
 
You must be bored down in LP; takin the heat gun to you poor old SKS... what did it ever do to you?
Ha, That's exactly what happened, I was bored and decided to 'fix' my spray painted sks stock. Removing the spray paint was the easy part.

Thanks for the tips
 
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