Only time will tell, I started out trying to clean my SKS stock, now its hanging in my garage, stripped, stained and tung-oiled. I figure its a good stock to start out with, can't look much worse than it did when I started. I am hoping for a nice, mellow look. The wood on my Yugo SKS is a lot darker than some, more like Walnut than Birch. I steamed the stock for dents, but didn't try to sand any gouges out, it should still have character when I get it back together.
Andy

Sometimes andy you just gotta do it. Good luck on your project. Show is some pix if you can when you get it done.

Only time will tell, I started out trying to clean my SKS stock, now its hanging in my garage, stripped, stained and tung-oiled. I figure its a good stock to start out with, can't look much worse than it did when I started. I am hoping for a nice, mellow look. The wood on my Yugo SKS is a lot darker than some, more like Walnut than Birch. I steamed the stock for dents, but didn't try to sand any gouges out, it should still have character when I get it back together.
Andy
Andy--I do a lot of military stocks (Garand, carbine, Spfd '03, 98k, Enfield, etc.) revitalizing, and I've used oven cleaner to pull out all the old oil, dirt, and corruption out of the stock. After soaking it to raise all the dents, and a little steam, I lightly steel wool all the feathers out of the grain, avoiding any cartouches. If the wood is walnut, I just use linseed oil mixed with turpentine and teak oil to bring out the original color and finish. A little hand rubbed beeswax rounds it out for protection. I recommend stain only if you want the wood to look different than it would naturally.

I always wonder how one would wash ALL the oven cleaner out of the pores of the wood so that it does not continue to degrade/dissolve the wood over time?
It must take weeks for the stock to dry after being subject to a prolonged dunking?

I think the SKS was a good project, there are a lot of them around, value is not high, and I had one. I was able to strip the stock down to bare wood with only acetone, wasn't really my plan to strip the finish off, but it was basically non-existent. I also steamed and steel wooled, with some very light sanding here and there, to remove spots of varnish. I stained the stock, hoping to uniform the color and because I mistakenly thought you had to stain the wood to seal it. Finish is 2 coats Tung oil (not Tung oil varnish) and it is dried but curing now. Only issue I have with it, the hand guard is obviously a different wood than the stock. I am happy, i didn't change the battle worn look of the wood, it is just a lot cleaner now. Tung oil is supposed to be more waterproof than Linseed, the Army used both on Garands.
While I had it apart, I took the opportunity to detail clean it, I used some copper solvent on the bore, even tho the bore was mirror bright, there must have been a lot of copper in it, the Yugos don't have a chrome lined bore. I guess the Hoppes No9 and boresnake only go so far. I also cleaned and degreased the gas tube and op rod. It was 100% reliable before, hopefully I didn't "fix" something that wasn't broken.
Andy

I always wonder how one would wash ALL the oven cleaner out of the pores of the wood so that it does not continue to degrade/dissolve the wood over time?
It must take weeks for the stock to dry after being subject to a prolonged dunking?

Rinse it with VERY HOT water. I mean boiling till you take it off the stove.

There are some suggestions for neutralizing the lye in the oven cleaner, but I didn't know any better and skipped that step on a few stocks I have done. Could not see any harm resulting from skipping that step, but I did rinse generously and again, with very hot water.


Andy,

FYI, you may have some cosmoline leach out of the stock wood months or years later. It won't hurt anything, but it may discolor the stock slightly in that area.

Have had a few mil-surps that were so soaked with cosmoline that the wood was pliable..... one of them, gave up, and finished it with epoxy to just seal in the grease!

I use Purple Power to do the same thing to restore all the stocks on my milsurps. PP, available at auto stores, is much less caustic and neutralizes with water. Finish cleaning with Windex and use Tung oil for the finish and the stock looks like it did with it left the factory.

I always wonder how one would wash ALL the oven cleaner out of the pores of the wood so that it does not continue to degrade/dissolve the wood over time?
It must take weeks for the stock to dry after being subject to a prolonged dunking?

Rinse with a vinegar solution, and let dry. Vinegar is a mild acid. and will neutralize the Caustic. Let dry and steel wool, or sand as necessary then apply the finish.

I have been using Acetone and the best rubber gloves you can get for a few years now. do it outside. it will not raise the grain, and it WILL srtip the snot out of anything in or on the wood....

Herre's my "Cowboy companion SKS stock after stripping and refinish....just poly coated this one, as i figger it'll take a beating sooner or later....


http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1600/682422/16356483/261684854.jpg

I always wonder how one would wash ALL the oven cleaner out of the pores of the wood so that it does not continue to degrade/dissolve the wood over time?
It must take weeks for the stock to dry after being subject to a prolonged dunking?
I should have added that you want to thoroughly rinse the stock after the oven cleaner drill. You can also scrub it down with mild liquid detergents and rinse it thoroughly. It doesn't take long to dry out, but would allow two days before putting any finish on it. But in answer to your questions: it will neither degrade the wood, nor take weeks to dry out. Many stock refinishers se this technique.