I have fought cosmosnot for years and I have tried almost every suggested chemical and method, but recently I discovered that I there is another way. There are more techniques, but this works for me, and my wife. Sitting cosmoline soaked whatever on the dashboard of my car on a hot day removes the junk far easier and more gently than any method that I've tried. It beats a hair dryer, heat gun, mineral spirits, paper towels, or strait elbow grease. I could never try my oven because my wife my might actually kill me. All I do is sit the item on paper towels on my dash and wipe away the cosmoline every few hours.
Right now I've got the stock from a Yugo M48 and the cosmoline is leaching out of the wood at an impressive rate. I should have taken before and after pics. The M1 stock that I did last week came out with very little cosmoline smell the wood felt dry. I think dish soap would work great on bolts or other metal items, and I'll try that too on my next gun. I haven't bought next gun yet.
If you think you'll be doing any more in the future, you can make your own cosmoline oven with a metal trashcan, a heat lamp or regular bulbs, and a metal oven rack. Just put the stock on the rack and the cosmoline drips down off the stock. The original Surplusrifle.com is gone, but the plans for the oven are still out there on various sites.
I agree. I poured very hot water over the metal parts of my Mosin and was done within about 15-20 minutes. The wood I did during the winter in front of the fire place. Worked great.
I use a metal trash can with bulbs for stock and barrel/receiver. Small metal parts...a metal pan(like used for baking) aluminum...fill with mineral spirits and let soak for a few minutes. Then brush off cosmoline that hasn't already come off. Rinse parts off under water and use air compressor to blow out water and dry. Then spray all metallic parts with a CLP. Also, take stock in an out of homemade oven and wipe off cosmoline that has leached out. Do this until you are satisfied that majority of Cosmo is out.
