How to remove wax from your gun stock?

[Ralph English]

How do you remove wax from a Parker gun stock with no damage to the under the wax original factory stock finish? Thanks for your help. Ralph

[Mike McKinney]

Ralph, I’m going to be curious as to what others say, but I think if faced with the same, I would use 0000 steel wool to wear through it. It’s probably thicker and thinner in places, but you would have to rub a lot to wear through the original finish. If there are places where the finish is worn you will see quickly with no harm or foul. Where checkering is concerned I would avoid.

[William Davis]

I use Permatex Blue Label hand cleaner for delicate wood cleaning jobs. Tip came from a professional furniture restoration shop. Not gritty very mild solvent in a lanolin base. Does not harm underlying finish removes dirt and old polish film.

Try it on something else that’s been waxed before you use it on your Parker. You will be surprised how well it works, I was.

William

[Brian Dudley]

This is part of why I never really recommend using wax on a stock. Because it can cause issues down the road with getting it off or if the finish needs to be touched up or added to.

Any alcohol would remove wax. But it will also likely compromise the finish under it. There are commercial “wax and tar” removers for the automotive indistry and may contain something different.
Mineral Spirits will be safe for the finish. But I am
Not sure how effective it would be on the wax.

[Buddy Marson]

Ralph,
I use FORMBY'S Build-up Remover to remove wax from old decoys. The results are excellant! I think this stuff would be a good choice for removing wax from gun stocks.

Buddy

[Phillip Carr]

Acrysol was a go to product for removing wax for paint touch up on aircraft in the service center. Used for everything I had kind of forgot how great this product was for so many things. Every mechanic had a can in his box.
I can not say how it would work on a gun stock but I will buy a can this week and try on a couple of old spare gun stocks.