Bedding an older wood stock

[lomfs24]

I bought a single shot savage that has a wooden stock on it. It's a pretty nice stock so I don't really want to get rid of it. I do want to bed it though. And when I took the action out of the stock the bottom part of the action is soaked in oil. The last owner was not afraid of the oil can. How do you get rid of all that oil soaked into the wood before you bed it. I wouldn't think that the bedding would stick to the wood once it is soaked in oil.

[USMarine1108]

You could toss it in the oven on very low heat and let the oil "weep" out. It's done pretty often with surplus guns. However, I don't think you would get it all out.

[Constable1]

There is a substance called "Whiteing" (sp)?? that when applied to oil soaked wood will draw the oil from the wood.
as I remember it usually required several applications to do its job. It should be available from Brownells
I learned about this several years ago when cleaning up an old Oil soaked #4 Enfield rifle.
check it out

[lomfs24]

Constable, I looked it up at midway. It appears to be nothing more than chalk. The same chalk used to mark lines in a football field. Mix it with a solvent that will break down the oil and the chalk will suck it up. Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try.
The low heat in the oven would probably get the bulk of it out and the chalk would get the rest.

Thanks for the tips guys. This is why I love this site.

[dcloco]

I built a steel garbage can to remove grease/oil from military stocks.

Using 200 watt lightbulbs, ceramic light fixtures, and an on/off switch, I heated the stocks up so the oil/grease was baked out of the stocks.

You need to monitor the stocks...as the bulbs will create enough heat to catch them on fire.