AK-47 refinishing project! *WARNING: PIC HEAVY*

[snakeman21]

So I decided a few days ago to refinish the wood on my Romanian WASR-10, and I put that plan into motion today. I started after finally making the ultimate decision: Blonde or redhead? In the end, I went with redhead. I want a nice dark red with a semi-gloss finish.


The rifle before any changes:

















First item of business was to remove the furniture. I won't bore you with the process, we've all seen it done. If you haven't, Google is your friend.
I will, however, point out the little crack I discovered in my upper handguard:



I'm not too worried about it. If it breaks, AK furniture is super easy to come by.

OK, with the wood removed and the rest of the gun reassembled and stashed in a drawer for now, it was time for the best part of DIY projects:



Time to get to work. The materials:



From left to right:

Assorted pack of sandpaper, including 100, 150, and 220 grit papers.

Red mahogany stain

Semi-gloss polyurethane

Yes, I am doing this on the dining room table. I have a cool wife

Getting started:



This is the underside of the stock. I photographed it to show the tool marks, which I debated sanding out, but ultimately decided I like them there:



After sanding the stock with all three sandpapers:



Had to make a dust cover for my beer.



Finished the lower handguard...



...and the upper handguard.



Well. This seems like a perfect time for...



Another beer!
OK, back to work.

After applying the stain:



OK, now I let it sit for a few minutes...



Oops. Finished my beer while waiting... You know what that means!



After wiping off excess stain:





Well, the can says wait a minimum of 8 hours before applying the poly, so now I wait. I like the color it has taken so far, but I think I might apply another coat of stain and darken it a bit. What do you guys think? Poly it tomorrow? Or give it a second helping of stain first?

[CHEMICAL]

I think you'll be surprised at how much it pops once you add the poly to the shade it is now!

[Trap9]

Red was a good idea, one stain should be fine. I actually made my WASR furniture to look russian red by using food coloring! here's the tutorial I made when I went through the process if you want to compare mine with yours:

http://forum.pafoa.org/rifles-42/129...rial-wasr.html

[CHEMICAL]

Red was a good idea, one stain should be fine. I actually made my WASR furniture to look russian red by using food coloring! here's the tutorial I made when I went through the process if you want to compare mine with yours:

http://forum.pafoa.org/rifles-42/129...rial-wasr.html

Yeah...if you ever decide to sell that.............

[Gooseaholic]

I put 6 coats of mahogany stain on mine and 4 coats of tung oil. just to give u and idea of a darker color. IMG_0300.jpg

[snakeman21]

Red was a good idea, one stain should be fine. I actually made my WASR furniture to look russian red by using food coloring! here's the tutorial I made when I went through the process if you want to compare mine with yours:

http://forum.pafoa.org/rifles-42/129...rial-wasr.html

That is gorgeous! I'm going for a darker, deeper red, though... More of a natural red. Beautiful looking gun from a plain WASR, though! I never thought using food coloring would work... If I came up with the idea, I'd have laughed at myself for being so stupid. But by god, it works, and I'm impressed with the results. I'm going to suggest that to a friend of mine. He wants a really vibrant red on his WASR, and I think that might be just the thing.

[EvoRich]

Love the look so far. Reddish brown is my favorite finish of all

[adoddere]

I have to say, I thought the original finish wasn't that bad. That said, really enjoyed the photo story. It was cool to scroll down and watch the steps unfold. I for one really enjoyed the layout and watching a fellow PAFOA member set out and document a project. Cool stuff.

[snakeman21]

Love the look so far. Reddish brown is my favorite finish of all

Me too... But there's still something appealing about a nice blonde AK:

[Gun]

What do you guys think? [/B]

I would have been on my sixth beer at this point.