Originally Posted By: Robenstein
The one thing I don't like about Ballistol when it comes to wood is that it never cures like a boiled linseed oil or tung oil will.
If people are using it for wood on purpose, it would just be cheaper to get butchers block oil or regular pharmacy mineral oil.
Notionally one hasn't damaged the wood sufficiently that a refinish with tung or linseed oil is necessary. Incidental contact due to trying to clean and coat guns right up to the wood interface is a big deal to me, as is the ability to wipe the entire piece with a rag that will help remove various dirt and mess from the entire gun, and be ok for the wood and for the next time you handle it with bare skin.
If I were truly looking to keep up an oiledstock with additional oil, I wouldn't necessarily say that ballistol should be choice #1. I'd want to know what exactly is on the stock first.
Originally Posted By: Shannow
mineral oil isn't a "drying oil" creating varnish/laquer
Exactly.
On another note, while aim sure brake cleaner is a great solvent, it certainly isn't something I'd want to use a lot of indoors. I suspect that the chlorinated types are not good for plastic guns, and the non-chlorinated types are very much like Ed's red.
Which is another option for cleaning and ensuring an oily coating is left on guns. Another old recipe, it will leave a film due to lanolin content, but aid be less interested in some of the atf and kerosine components for incidental contact on wood and skin. It's a fine dunking solvent though, IMO. Cheap and effective too.
And like ballistol and everything else, just another tool in the box.