Very dark patina stock — what to do

[Craig Budgeon]

To answer your question Dean, we used it more than 40 years ago on a Winchester lever gun. The stock on that gun was filthy from storage and had oil in the wrist. We used a flannel cloth and straight Woolite beginning in the wrist. I know the purchaser of that gun was pleased with the wood. In addition, I don't see any sense in applying material on a stock without removing the offensive material first. Frankly, 40 years ago Timberlux was not even created yet and we were able to produce very acceptable results with $.20 worth of Woolite.

[Ron Scott]

Originally Posted by Craig Budgeon

I don't see any sense in applying material on a stock without removing the offensive material first. Frankly, 40 years ago Timberlux was not even created yet and we were able to produce very acceptable results with $.20 worth of Woolite.

I agree that the "offensive material" needs to be removed -- BUT I didn't want to "refinish" the stock. By "refinish" I mean strip off all of the original finish down to the bare wood. I wanted to retain the original finish but clean it up. The wood was so dark, either from 140 years of dirt gradually getting rubbed into the finish, or just built up patina from being in the attic for that long. I thought that Timberlux would do that and was surprised to read the instructions and find that all you do is apply it over the existing finish. But it did lighten the wood and bring out the grain without me cleaning the wood in any way.

I'd like to see the results of a stock cleaned with woolite -- sounds interesting. I wouldn't want to try it on a stock still on the gun though -- I think there is a chance the caustic ingredients might rust the metal. Removing the wood from two 140 year old shotguns for a simple cleaning is more work than I wanted to do.