Stock refinishing (AK)

[Asmodeus6]

I picked up a full set of Romanian furniture (fixed stock, VFG) wood furniture to toy around with.

It's in pretty good shape aside from one ding in the lower hand guard... Which is deep, but small.

But needs some touch up work to be what I would enjoy putting on a rifle and...


I never did anything like this before ever. I'm a poly guy. But the poly I had on this AK is going to end up on a Saiga at a later date since it was expensive, and it's US stuff.

Here's the bad spot and should give you a general impression of the condition of the rest of the furniture.






So uh... what do I do? I know this sounds stupid but I don't even know where to start with it really. Like I could start sanding it? I have to reshape the trailing edge of the VFG portion to ease in the installation of 40rd mags. They simply do not go in with it installed and this is not acceptable since I have a pile of them - and they are predominantly what I like to use.

I contemplated doing this with a rotary tool and just taking my time so I could literally shape it as I reduced it and just stop when I get to the desired point.

But the overall finish... do I just go at it with sand paper to get the existing top coating off, buff it with wool and then reapply the clear? Any good ways to fill that ding without making an obvious eye sore?

( I emailed APEX about the possibility of exchanging it - I'm still waiting to hear back.)

I'd like something not super shiny, but not a flat finish. I'm not after anything way beyond my skill level either. (difficult, hard to apply, mix, get right kinds of finishes) I also considered possibly apply a dye or stain type of finish - but I have no experience with that either. But if I were to attempt it here are some of my considerations; (All probably beyond my ability at the moment)

Something that will blend with the existing color and stay the same.

Something more purple red than brown but not blingy candy red. Think more flat plum. (If this is even possible with this wood, and base color)

Something black. Not brown, not brownish black / purple. Or walnut looking. Black. Then I could buff down to get back to the lighter wood to add some depth to the finish by exposing some of the grain in choice areas. (might not be possible if it takes many applications to get the desired darkness of color.)

I do not want to spray paint it. And if all of my "other" idea's reek of complexity and disaster... tell me. I'll just strip it and re clear it and it can be how it is - not looking retarded after I fuck it up trying to do something I can't do.

I'm probably going to either make, or buy the top hand guard / gas tube unit with the small metal cover with the vented holes through it. (like mesh) I think this will top off the look I was going for nicely.


After fooling with the VFG hand guard a little today (on the rifle) I like it and it's going on there. The curve in the front is prefect for a Magpul AFG type hold while getting your hand out and away from the magwell. (my habit) This is identical but further out and I like it. I don't even care about having a traditional VFG since I'm not one to use it really. So I may cut it way down to make mag changes real easy. I don't know yet.

Help though please on the refinishing portion. I'm a refinishing newb.

[FLICK]

I have redone alot of furniture recently and I'll give you what advice I think is prudent. The moral of the story is buy quality stain, sandpapers, and whatever else you might need. At least with my furniture experience, it DID make a difference. Take your time, too. Sand a little, take a look- especially if you chose to use electric sanders, et all.

I would sand the finish off the entire piece. Get a few (read; many) pieces of quality sandpaper starting around, maybe 80 or 100 grit and going up to around 200 grit. The higher the number, the less rough the paper is and the faster it will get gummed up with poly or whatever. I'm telling you to sand instead of using a stripper b/c you can go slow and shape the wood as you go and my experience with strippers (not that kind) is that they don't work well on ployureathane coatings. I may just be a bad stripper. YMMV.

OK, so, everything is down to bare wood. Reshape your forward grip to your liking. Redo all the wood you want to do at the same time to make sure it looks the same. You can get a lot of differnet colors of stain at most hardware stores, including ebony- an almost black (with a few coats). The internet will have stranger/different/hard to find stains. Put on the stain with a rag or foam brush, let it sit, wipe it off. To light? Repeat as many times as you want to get the desired color. Too dark- well, your kinda screwed. You can also get Polyureathane anywhere from glossy to very matte. I like foam brushes for poly, too. Thin coats and repeat. Do the ploy-ing in a dust free area- not in the place you did your sanding- shit gets trapped in the ploy and looks crappy. If there is a ton of stuff in the polyurethane- you can sand it with a very high number grit paper- like 1000 or 1200 to get it off, but it will slightly sand the poly around it.

As far as fixing the hole, I'd do it when the part is completely sanded. A quality stainable wood filler should work. Follow the directions on the can. Make sure it will handle the poly, too.

The moral of the story is go slow. If you don't like it- stop. The more time you put into it the better it will look.

Just ask if what I said sounds like rambling, Ill try to clear it up. Good luck.

[Coils]

Good info Flick.
I don't know what to say about that hole, I also think a quality wood filler is going to be pretty much it.

Do you realize this stock set, the lower & stock, are laminated like plywood? What your calling "grain" is the layers of wood.

To strip the glossy looking finish you can wrap it in a paper towel or rag soaked in denatured alcohol, this will soften this layer enough to scrap/wipe it off.
The wood will still have that orange'ish color, if you want to get it a lighter color, soak it for a few hours in a 50/50 mix of bleach & water.

For a colored stain, get a clear or as light of a stain as you can and put some die in it, test the mix on scrap wood.

If you want to have the vertical grip but want some more clearance for the mags, take off an 1" to 1.5" off the bottom then reshape it. I've seen one were the person left the front alone and cut a notch in the bottom back area for mag clearance.

[ByAnyMeans]

I think you have a good idea to sand the front grip and reshape as you go. This allows you to check it as you go preventing you from removing to much at once. The only person I know who redid the set you have just cut the front grip off. It looks great but either way will work.

When I redid my WASR I took of all the furniture. I used wood stripper to remove the finish. It got slobbered in the stuff and then scraped off. I also used steel wool with a bucket of water to get it all off. The directions are easy to follow and I got a bottle big enough for ten rifle for about five bucks at True Value.


I then used a wet cloth and iron to steam out and little imperfections. For that ding I would use a quality sandable wood filler.

I applied one coat of Minwax stain and after about three hours I took 200 grit sandpaper to it to reduce the "grains" you feel. This gets the stock nice and smooth, filling it in with stained "dust" for lack of a better way to explain it. I then put on two more coats of stain throughout the next two days. I topped it off with a coat of satin polyurethane. I am unsure what type of poly you would want to use based on the finish you want. I like the flat look hence my choice but what you describe would require a different one.


Hope this helps and show pics when your done. I'm sure their will be many others ways people post I just found this to be the easiest. More than one way to skin a cat and all that.

[Asmodeus6]

Yeah I realize it's laminated which is giving me the "grain" pattern. I can sand. I'm not an experienced "stripper". Most of the prep work I've done before has been for paint on either metal or fiberglass body parts for cars. I'm sure the same rules apply for prep work. Just wasn't sure if there was anything different since I never really worked with wood.

I got the rifle back together for the most part. (Stupid effin' gas block pins refused to go in the gas block without bending... so I'm going to go make some new ones in a bit)

So now it is furniture time. I went into my local hardware store today for the set screws I needed since I tapped the gas block to be able to "tune" the gas system by threading in different orifice's via drilled set screws. I looked at minwax stains. And found some wood filler thing that said it was stainable. I didn't buy anything because I could only find the filler in "natural" - which I don't know what that will look like compared to this laminated wood. And because I didn't find a stain that jumped out at me. The one reddish one seemed "OK" - but wasn't quite what I was looking for. The darkest one they had was "walnut" - which I think looks like shit on AK's. Everyone uses that color too and I can't stand it.

I guess I'll sand it all down and see what it looks like.

Keep the advice coming. I certainly apprieciate it. I'll go try to look at some stains online tonight. If anyone has some good links feel free. I'm going to go get the thing functional now. And then come back to the furniture portion over the next week.

Any ideas appreciated.

PS: The soaking the wood in bleach idea is so cool. I could do that to my PSL stock to get the rear to match the blond front. The light wood on that rifle is so awesome. I just wish it all matched. I never should have bought poly furniture for that rifle either. It doesn't fit 100%, and it especially doesn't fit ME 75%. It's heavier... and just generally sucks. For $175 I should be thrilled. I'm completely NOT thrilled... at all.

[West Chester]

Post up your progress pics... I have been thinking about cutting off the donkey dong and sanding smooth for magazine clearance also.

[CHEMICAL]

I agree with the steaming. although it works better with dings rather than holes it should raise some of the damage and minimize sanding. When I refinished my old sks I held the dings over a tea kettle's steam.

[FLICK]

minwax colors---

http://www.minwax.com/products/wood_...sh.html#Colors

Me thinks ebony or jacobean would set off that evil black rifle of yours....

[ByAnyMeans]

minwax colors---

http://www.minwax.com/products/wood_...sh.html#Colors

Me thinks ebony or jacobean would set off that evil black rifle of yours....

Their Ebony stain is very nice on a rifle like the AK.

[Asmodeus6]

Ok well I got it all back together. I made new gas block pins out of snug fitting nails...
Come on it's an AK... right? (Yes, I chopped sections out of them to exact pin size, and even blued them. There aren't 1" long nails sticking out of my gas block...)

And then I laid it out. Romy front handguard with the poly grip and stock still on it... looking all bastardized... and it dawned on me.

UH... if I stain all the wood some weird color... how am I going to put the bakelite grip on it and have it match - at all? So I either go DARK - and use my existing black grip. (Which would be great because I already wrapped it into the trigger guard with black paracord.) Or I leave the color alone.

Decisions...

And if I try to "steam" the spot missing this chunk of material... what exactly is that going to do? Make it pop out a little bit? It's a chip, not a ding. So I think that the missing material is still going to be missing, right?

Do I steam just that area? Short of a pot of boiling water I don't really have a steaming device. No tea kettle or anything like that? I think I have a skillet with a glass lid that has a very small vent hole I might be able to use for a spot treatment?

Or am I not understanding what I need to do with it?

Sorry for being a wood newb.

Is this stock pretty much hollow as well? A small part of the reason for the switch is my poly stock is delivering the force of the action directly into my face. It's also why I tapped the gas block to make the orifice size adjustable. Thinking if I can bring the gas impulse down to just what it needs to function reliably... it will stop pounding the rear trunion... and my face. Add in some increased weight and thickness from going to wood components and stock. And I might get less transfer into my face, and more velocity out of the barrel.

Plus, I get to learn something new.