How do I get the Cosmoline out of my Mosins wood stock?

[Willie D]

wrap it in newspaper, then gently use heat, it will draw it out. the idea condition would be to wrap it and put it in a hot car for a few hours.

This worked better than anything else I tried on my SKS stock.

Stock, newspaper, black trash bag, on the dash board. Change papers daily.

It stopped sweating after a few days and didn't stink up the car either.

[LifeInPa]

Just an update. I have the gun disassembled, threw several pots of boiling water on and threw them, soaked with Simple Green, cleaned with a toothbrush and ran more boiling water over them. The metal parts dried and I coated them with CLP. Two concerns right now, I got a good look at the inside of the barrel and it looks bad. It looks like a sewer pipe so I shot some CLP down it and will do a bore brushing soon. Second the stock, I am using the hair drier method and I am only having some success. I am still working on the little strip of wood on top of the barrel and after an hour it looks like I made no progress. I tried rubbing a little CLP on the wood but it didn't really do much. I am thinking of trying Simple Green. Here are some photo's:

Metal parts soaking in CLP, some bluing is missing from the magazine I noticed:



The stock, nothing to really see at this point:



What I got off the metal parts after the washing:

[LifeInPa]

I took a second look down the barrel 30 minutes after spraying it down with CLP and it looks much better, what I think I saw was chunks of cosmoline.

[Thomas Paine]

Heat gun + lots of paper towels works for me. The Cosmo melts at like 170 degrees. Slides right off, and you can work meticulously in needed areas.

I hate buying new guns, cuz they DON"T have cosmoline all over 'em. ruins the fun.

[Andrew6791]

Do you plan on refinishing? Oven cleaner will strip shellac, its what I used to get it off for refinishing. Vinegar will take the blue off of your metal bits, its also what I did to take the
Blue off. (It turns the bluing into rust in less than a minute.)

What I did to clean Cosmo was take it completely apart, every bit and wipe it down with mineral spirits. To "sweat" the Cosmo out I just placed the stock on a trash bag in front of a fireplace/space heater and wait. In my experience, it doesn't really go away. Every time I shoot mine it sweats Cosmo, not a lot btw.

[WVneighbor]

Heat and time. Those are really the only things that are going to get the soaked in cosmo out.

I put the stock of my M44 in the oven on the lowest heat for an hour and wiped tons of cosmo off. I repeated this for an entire Saturday afternoon. IF you do this, leave the door open. Even at the lowest heat, the cosmo started smoking and it STINKS. However, at the very next range trip as soon as things heated up, the stock started seeping cosmo. I could actually see beads of it on the stock as I shot. I took my rag and wiped it down through-out the afternoon.

That was 3 or 4 years ago.

Everytime I've taken it to the range, I've had the same thing happen. It's gotten better, but as the barrel and sun heat the stock, it still weeps.

What I figured out is that the cosmo had penetrated the wood so deeply that it just took time to come out.

If it were summer time, I'd say wrap it in newspaper or old towels, put it in a black bag and set it on the dash of a closed up car.

Good luck!

[Remington788]

I bought mine last February. In the winter, it is hard to do the hot car or hot attic method. I wrapped my stock and the barrel in a layer of paper towels, then newspapers, then tin foil.
Laid the packets on the radiators and let the house heat sink in. The paper towels and newspapers absorbed the cosmo and the tin foil kept it from leaking onto the radiator (which I am willing to bet would not smell too good).

Eventually I stripped the original finish and re-stained it and finished it with gun stock wax.

[SigSauer226]

I took a second look down the barrel 30 minutes after spraying it down with CLP and it looks much better, what I think I saw was chunks of cosmoline.

The best way to get the bore clean....
shoot the hell out of it. Works everytime.

[harold63]

The bad thing about cosmoline and those finishes are one, the finish doesn't seal out any oil or moisture, and two, anything that will thin paint will possibly harm the finish. Simply green, though water soluble-biodegradable, and all that, has a caustic affect, and can stain the stain that is already on the stock. If it were my gun, I'd spray it down, well with Rem oil and wipe it dry, a few times. It will get any thick stuff off without hurting the finish. Unfortunately, cosmoline is a petroleum and it has likely soaked into the wood, especially if it sat in any area that was warm or hot like a warehouse. The hot car method works, but takes time. I'd personally use gauze or string to wrap it in tissue, tightly, so whatever lifts out is absorbed and not left on the wood to repenetrate, otherwise, just remove the heavy with Rem oil and wipe it down every so often as the oil from the cosmo lifts out. There is no way to get it all out and keep your original finish intact. Don't throw away any old T-shirts. They make good, soft clothes for wiping lifted oils from the stock, which will happen just from sitting in your home. Oh yea, buy an extra bar of soap for days you take it out. Cosmo oil on the skin doesn't always come off with the first wash.

[DrillNFill]

I can't offer too much info on removing the Cosmo from the stock, I think I just used a mild orange cleaner that was safe for furniture. But then it was so beat up I decided to refinish it later. But I found that Birchwood-Casey Gun Scrubber and a toothbrush worked well to get the Cosmo out of the barrel, chamber, magazine, and all the little metal bits. Scrubbed it real well, especially the chamber, and haven't had a "sticky bolt" situation yet

Just remember not to reuse the toothbrush for anything else