Dark wood stock cleanup
 

On the subject of original finish stocks that are very old and grimy, do we leave them alone out of fear of destroying original finish or do people typically clean them up at risk of having to refinish stock?

The stock is particularly dark around the head from the photo so it may be pretty oily. Haven't seen in person yet but here is the photo.

You can do a search on the Forum and get some help from a number of threads that exist on the subject

Really because I did search, heck I Googled the forum as well. Found a lot about stripping the finish, drooling wood, and cleaning the frame, found very little about just cleaning a stock.

Search acetone. Oily stocks should be what you need

Mr. Holcombe:
Without having the gun in hand, it is difficult to gauge the severity of the oil soak.

It is also difficult to know what you want to do. If it is to merely clean up the exterior as much as you can, use a cloth damped with any good kitchen surface cleaner like "Fantastic." Be sure to clean any overage off the metal and oil however.

Petroleum distillates will remove the exterior finish. So will acetone.

If you wish to remove oil soak IN the wood, there is no other course but to refinish the stock. Oil removal can be done with acetone soak or TSP. However... please understand that you will never get all of the oil out of a stock. It may look clean, but there's oil still deep inside. It took 100+ years to get in there and degrade wood fibers. And it isn't coming out in 5 days.

Parkers with black walnut stocks are also very prone to stockhead splits. This can be another reason to refinish the stock/repair problems.

All this is best evaluated and "fixed" by a qualified stocker/gunsmith.

I have drooled a stock before with acetone and denatured alcohol and even a hair dryer. It's actually chronicled pretty well on here 2 years ago or so.

I was more interested in just cleaning up the stock without stripping the finish. Tried before with Murphys soap and it took finish and everything off. At the moment I haven't seen the stock in person to know how dark it really is.

Just wipe it gently with Dawn dishwashing soap and water. However even that will remove a dirt and oil finish.

Well I am having to wait until tomorrow to get it as Postal Service is closed today.

Hopefully when I get my hands on it, it won't be as dark as it is in the pic and I won't have to mess with it. But we shall see.

How about the wax you used in this post Mr Day
http://parkerguns.org/forums/showthread.php?t=67

That is fine but just like a dirty car, get the dirt off first. If, after some soap and water , you do not have any finish left, all you had was dirt and oil anyway, which is no kind of a proper finish.