I worked a stock with 0000 steel wool, then wiped the stock with water to raise whiskers and smooth it out. Bits of the steel wool lingering in the stock rusted, and left me with dozens of black freckles. Would suggest 0000 bronze wool, or at least stay away from water, unless it's being used to wake up a glass of single malt

Yeah. You never want to use water on bare stock wood. It introduces unwelcomed moisture. I always use alcohol to do this. It gets the job done and evaporates quickly.

Thanks everyone for the suggestions.

Neil

You might want to look at a web site for TimberLuxe. Myself and others talked to the gunsmith, Brian Board, who developed it, at the Southern this weekend. I had seen the web site before and was interested in it. He was showing a stock he had used it on, maybe his results are more difficult than his claims, but it sure was a pretty stock with a very good hue. I came home with a couple of bottles.

Mike must have missed him at the Southern, what's his website?

That web site is timberluxe.com I had heard of it, even watched a video, which was pretty interesting, that i can't find now, possibly on You Tube. He was explaining the product to another member when I met him and remembered the endorsement.

When refinishing a stock, I routinely read that after an acetone soak to clean, de-oil the stock, the acetone soak should be followed with a soak in denatured alcohol. My questions are : (1) what is the typical duration of the alcohol soak and what is the metric by which one can tell the alcohol soak has accomplished all that it is going to do and (2) besides removing the finish which if shellac should occur quickly with alcohol, what is the purpose of soaking the stock in alcohol for days? Thanks.

Since you have the stock off, whether you remove the old finish with acetone or not, take a hair dryer on the hot setting to the receiver end of the stock and watch the oil ooze out. Wipe it of and repeat until you are satisfied no more is coming out. Don't get it too hot by being too close, but one can bet there is 100 years worth of oil in there.