Spic & Span was one of those cleaning agents my mother swore by (and some times at), but I haven't seen it for sale in years. But then along with fixing things, if you could actually clean things well, there'd be less reason to follow today's commercial philosophy of "throw it away and buy new".

Bill Lawrence

Thank you everyone. More time in acetone seems to have cleared the grey.

New question (to save creating another thread).

What finish was used on the 1915's (pre serial number) wood? Boiled linseed oil like most pieces from that era or something else?

Thanks again!

LikeAntiques wrote on Mar 29^th, 2019 at 8:34am:


Good question, but I can't find the answer in the "authorities" I've checked.  A single application of oil isn't much of a finish, unless the stock is completely immersed in very hot oil, sometimes under pressure, as was done with many military stocks.  Repeated applications of rubbed oil would seem far too time consuming for low-priced guns.  So I wonder if a fast-drying lacquer was the most cost-effective (& superficially attractive) choice on field-grade guns.  A different story of course on high grade guns, where hand polished varnish was the standard.

Interesting! What varnish do you think they would have used?

The ancient furniture formula was linseed oil, rosin, and turpentine.  Proportions according the whims of the producer.