Marlin buttstock having oil removed from end grain with whiting.
Yes, the oven cleaner. This will strip everything off, finish, oil, cosmolene, grease, sand, dirt, crud. Spray it on (outdoors). Wait a while. Hose it off with the graden hose. Redo if necessary. That's it. Once you spray it on there's no going back. You will have to refinish the wood, after it dries out, of course.
Unless you like the idea of smelling lemons for the next few years, avoid the lemon scented version. Try to find the old unscented oven cleaner.
Whiting, or Calcium Carbonate CaCO3, is used to remove gun (petroleum) oils from oil-soaked wood before applying bedding. To use it, mix it into a paste with an organic solvent like Denatured alcohol (anhydrous), acetone, MEK (Methyl Ethel Ketone), Carb cleaner, Dry Gas, or Mineral Spirits. Put the paste on the affected areas and let dry. Warming the wood first with a light bulb or hair dryer will speed things up. Deeply oil soaked wood may require more than one application. If the first application turns deep brown, do another.
Whiting paste will also remove wood finishing oils, and the solvent you mix with it may remove hard finishes as well, like Tung Oil, Polyurethane or epoxy, as is commonly used in commercial wood stocks. So, be careful with it. With petroleum and natural oils removed, the epoxy resin will adhere better to the wood stock and make for a better job. Just let the wood air-out first to evaporate the solvent before applying your epoxy.
Whiting can be bought here, which is also a good source for Titanium Dioxide, Burnt Umber and Yellow Ochre.
French Whiting is just a pure form used for some painting techniques. You don't need the pure stuff, though it doesn't hurt.
Ken.
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