I'm not taking the bait anymore. Can you burn oak that's been cut 3 months? Yes. Should you? I don't know. I've never had a chimney fire due to creosote from green wood. If your neighbor's house is still standing, he's probably right. Point is, I've rebuilt a couple hundred 2 strokes for myself and friends, so I KNOW what it takes to get aluminum off a cylinder wall. I would imagine that if transfer was minimal, a scotch Brite pad may remove it. But it's hard to make that call over the Internet looking at pics. If acid is used, it's quite evident when it's all gone. Hence my original reply. I figured the OP was a noob, and didn't want to confuse him as to what/what not to do. The acid technique works well in this situation because there doesn't appear to be any heavy transfer near port edges or any deep grooves through the nikasil below ring travel. It's a 15 minute job at minimal cost. Mastermind's method works very well for a seasoned builder who knows what to look for and has tools to do it. Even after the acid treatment, I use his dowel and emery method to clean things up. In the end, some know what works better because they've either failed or succeeded trying to come up with better methods. And some don't because they haven't. Rock on cedarshark and drf255.