What's the best way to clean Garand stock?

[The Scientist]

A novice I am. I just recently purchased a Field Grade Garand (IH receiver and LMR barrel!).

What is the best and safest way of just cleaning the walnut wood on this rifle? Which soap?

[Scorpion8]

Some of it depends on your wife or your location. Does the stock have oil soaked into it? Set it in the bright sun and keep wiping the oil off every so often. If you have the smaller handguard off you can set that in an oven over low temp and the heat will bring the oils out. And your wife's anger, too. But keep flipping the stock or wood and keep wiping oil out of them regularly until it seems to stop.

[P5 Guy]

http://thecmp.org/training-tech/armo...aning-article/

From the folks that have all the know how. I've used the heat soak method already mentioned. Summer is coming and the dashboard of your vehicle, lots of paper towels to wrap the wooden parts, a black trash bag and full sun. The best place to start.
I have never used oven cleaner or dish washer methods. Someone is likely to bring these up. I'd avoid them.

[Tidewater_Kid]

Be careful and be gentle. Listen to P5 Guy. Never use the oven cleaner or dishwasher methods. If you can take some pictures of the stock, we will be able to tell you more.

TK

[gwpercle]

Don't use water...NO soap , no water, no oven cleaner and no dishwasher ! Who, in their right mind , would put a walnut stock in a dishwasher ? Oh yeah the guy on U-Tube ! DON'T look at U-Tube
You really need to post some photo's so we can see how bad/good it looks. Sometimes commercial furniture cleaner will do, other times , if things are real grungy and oil soaked more drastic steps are needed.
One thing you do not want to do is ruin an original walnut stock....when it's gone you can never replace it. New stocks never have the look and feel of the original.
Gary

[P5 Guy]

http://www.theboxotruth.com/educatio...-oven-cleaner/
http://www.m1-garand-rifle.com/m1-ga...embly/wood.php

Maybe these folks results are okay but I'd not recommend their methods.
Quick and dirty cleaning methods? Most likely the wood on your rifle has 50 or more years of sweat, oil, dirt and general grime, that is an important part of the rifle's history. Clean it gently and use the original finishing technique.

[The Scientist]

Thanks for the help guys. I've taken a couple of photos, will post them as soon as I figure out how to shrink them do the appropriate file size. Currently too big.

[The Scientist]

Figured out the pictures, here they are. In the late afternoon sun, so probably not the best.... long shadows.

[Orlando]

If ypu want to keep original patina use a rag lightly dampened with mineral spirits , then apply BLO.

If you want to do a complete strip to bare wood,then stain everything so all the wood matches and refinish I have a method that works very well. I have refinished over 30 Garand stocks and many M14 and several carbine and 1903 stocks this way.
Takes maybe 10 -15 minutes for a completetly clean bare stock . Its a really simple ,easy and alot less harsh than other methods
I first take Purple Power degreaser full strength and put it in a spray bottle.

I then spray down the stock with full strength degreaser, immediataly you will see years of grease. oil and dirt start to roll off. I do this in a utility sink but you can use a buckt etc.

I then take a soft nylon bristle brush and go over the stock.
Rinse well with hot water while rubbing with brush .
I will usually do procedure one more time except the last time wipe dry with cotton towel.
If stock is very oil soaked it may take another cleaning .
I then let the stock set to dry out of direct heat source.
This is what the wood looks like after drying

[Huffmanite]

FWIW, came home from a Lowes store with an Olympic brand Oxy deck cleaner with a form of bleach in it about 4 years ago. It came in powder form and mixed it with water. Did a great job of removing oil and etc from old military surplus rifle stocks, like ones on Springfields, mausers and etc. After its applicaltion with a stiff bristle brush, (usually did 4 or 5 applications), you could see the oil leaving the wood. After letting the wood dry, you could sand the wood without gumming up the sandpaper. Don't think you can find this particular product anymore. However, there are other wooden deck cleaner products available that may do the same thing. Word of caution, the bleach form of Olympic Oxy clean I used, did brighten/lighten the wood to a color you might not like. But, it darn sure did clean the wood.

[Dave P]

A little thinner on 0000 steel wool will clean all kinds of dirt, while treating the wood with respect.

[DennisCA]

Personally I like what Orlando said:
"If ypu want to keep original patina use a rag lightly dampened with mineral spirits , then apply BLO."

I like the "been-there/done-that" look!

[madmo44mag]

Being a collector of WW2 battle rifles I am in the group of LEAVE IS ALONE!!!!
That dirt is part of it's history.
If you must clean treat it gently.

Personally I like what Orlando said:
"If you want to keep original patina use a rag lightly dampened with mineral spirits , then apply BLO."

[The Scientist]

For now, I just want to clean it. I don't want to take the patina away. I'm leery of using anything that will take any of the stain. I'd like to take some of the dirt, oil and smudges away. Will the sun-baked-dark-garbage-bag-in-a-hot-car be the best for this? Thanks. Mineral spirits BLO would take some of the stain, correct?

[madmo44mag]

Mineral spirits if used on a damp cloth will only remove the top surface of dirt.
The stuff getting on your hands when handling the rifle.
Once you have wiped off the top layer of crude rub it down with a little BLO and enjoy.