Strip tease

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not a woodworker.  Generally speaking, I don't like wood as a building, or decorative, material.  So, I don't really do much with it.  I decided from the get go that the Mosin would get refinished, and since I don't do it much, I was looking forward to it.  For future reference, when planning to strip the varnish off a vintage Russian rifle, do NOT enter search terms that include the phrase "stripping old Russian." Most of the results have nothing to do with firearms...

If you're not familiar with Cosmoline, it is both the most wonderful, and most evil product used on surplus firearms(and surplus material in general).  It's a mixture of oil, grease, and wax that melts at around 130°F.  When putting guns in long term storage, they get a big vat of it melted, and dunk the whole rifle in.  It soaks into everything and penetrates all the cracks and crevices, completely protecting the gun from the elements, and preserving it indefinitely for future use(that's good).  That future use being me, I had to remove it all(that's bad).  It meant taking everything completely apart because Cosmoline will gum up the action.  Since the whole rifle was dunked in it, it also soaked into the stock.  The problem is that on a warm day, it will start to weep out of the stock, leaving you with Cosmo covered hands and a messy gun case.  It could also cause problems with the new finish.  Before I even got started refinishing the stock, I spent two weeks using a heat lamp to sweat Cosmoline out of it.

As shown a few posts ago, the varnish on the stock looked terrible.  It was peeling in places, and not very even.  It was definitely applied by a Russian peasant, not a master craftsman.  I decided to use Citri-Strip brand stripper.  I don't care about fumes or being environmentally conscious or any nonsense like that.  I chose the Citri-Strip for one big reason: it won't remove bluing from the steel parts left in the stock.  Other strippers could.  I slathered it on, and the varnish practically melted off as I was putting it on.

It mostly came off in just one coat, but I used two coats with the hope that it might pull more Cosmo out of the wood.  Here's how it looked after two coats of stripper.  The wood is still discolored in some areas, but it'll be restained anyway(it's still wet here too, so it looks darker than it really is).