I found some nice pieces of red oak that were left on an oily work bench for several years. They have soaked up some oil. Is there any way to rescue them and get the oil out, or are they fire wood? I know you can use acetone to clean off wood, but how deep does that work?
Acetone may not penetrate real deep as it dries fast, but as you clean it up, the oil may migrate to the dry surface and can be cleaned. It may take several tries to get it cleaned. let a day or so go between cleaning. If it is a real nice board, it may be worth it. But with the cost and danger of acetone, it might be cheaper to buy a new board. How thick is it? It might be thick enough to plane off a lot of the oil soaked wood. Don't burn it inside!
IMHO
Sounds like a lot of work for red oak. If you can't cut or plane it to usable dimentions, a new board will probabkly be better. Your time is worth more than a few board feet of oak, even if it is nice.
me like razorback say id throw it out go buy a new 5 dollar board not worth the hassle ha
Make some bows out of them as they are!
I will probably just burn it and buy new. I just hate to see good wood go to waste.
I cannot remember the name, but there is a product that will "suck" the oil out of old and saturated gun stocks. I bet you could call brownells and they can tell you what it is and how top use it. I learned about it asking "how to restore firearms" questions.