AK47 furniture.

**Ryan88** · February 19th, 2008, 05:07 AM

I'm not a wood man :P Besides woodshop I took in 8th grade. lol.

The AK47 I got at dunhams, the furniture is all dull and stuff.

To get that shiny-ness out of the stock, is that stained clear or sanded then waxed?

**P-11 shooter** · February 19th, 2008, 05:17 AM

Welcome to the forum. I have only refinished one stock and I used tung oil. It was not as shiny as the one you pictured but I also did not use the high-gloss tung oil. A good sanding, staining (if you don't like natural) and a high quality polyeurathane would probably put a hell of a shine on it, but there are probably others on here that know more about it than me.

**Ryan88** · February 19th, 2008, 05:21 AM

Awesome, thanks for the info.

I'd like to give it a shine. It makes the gun look more high end than the dull look.

**brian** · February 19th, 2008, 08:14 AM

wipe it down with alcohol, dry, sand, finish. i normally use clear shellac, reduced to 3lb cut.

**nfafan** · February 19th, 2008, 01:50 PM

What I do;

1.) Clean the wood as best as possible - or as desirable with what you have to start with.
Maybe a hot water/Dawn dish-soap soak for a couple hours, maybe even a touch of bleach, maybe only just 91% rubbing alcohol on rags - just depends on what I want to get from the wood and/or how much I want to save in the character and patina - while also de-greasing.

You might want to start with a bleached cleaning in doing a blond job, or just a de-greasing for a red or plum job.
If I wanted to save a "historic" piece finish, I might only use "lemon oil furniture cleaner" to get the surface crud off and leave the rest of the finish as-is.

1b.) Optional steaming of dents, sanding, etc. Depends on condition and what is desired. The raised, roughed-open grain from the cleaning step helps the stain take better.

2.) Stain as desired with whatever colors you want in whatever materials you like; RIT, food-colors, Feibings, oil-paints, Betadine, whatever

2b.) Repeat staining as desired for color depth. It always looks different when it is DRY.

3.) After the stain dries for AT LEAST 1 day, buff the wood with a scotchbrite pad and/or a Dremel with those little scotch-brite wheels. You might even hit it with 400-grit wet/dry sandpaper before the scotchbrite. (The extra-fine steelwool leaves too much crap stuck in the wood for my needs.)

By the time you are done - it should look like you had put Tung oil on the now shiney, scotch-brite polished wood.

4.) Apply 1 coat Minwax Sealer Stain #209 "Natural color". This darkens the color just the tiniest bit, but is otherwise clear and really gets the grain to pop out - better than tung oil can do.

5.) Some of the "clear" #209 stain will absorb, and you will want to apply a second coat of #209 after you have allowed the first coat to dry for a day or two. I have also lightly coffee-filter-paper buffed between coats, but thats up to you.

6.) Allow a day or 2 for the second coat to dry. Usually the second coat of #209 is enough.

7.) You can optionally apply a thin coat/thin coats of Formby's Tung Oil over the Minwax #209 to waterproof it.
If so, go thin and allow lots of drying time if applying multiple coats. Applied too thick and its yecch to feel and never gives the sense that it is completely dry no matter how long you wait.

FWIW, I use the Formby's Tung, but a 100% pure Tung would be better. Avoid the "tung oil finishes" out there as they can contain polyurethanes or other difficult-to-remove-if-you-don't-like-it-shit.

8.) Optionaly do a lite coffee-filter-paper buff of the dried Tung finish if you want a satiny look versus a glossy look.

[/B][/B]

**gun papa** · February 19th, 2008, 03:40 PM

Looks good to me.

**K31** · February 19th, 2008, 05:31 PM

Looks good to me to. If all you want to do is make it glossy just wipe it clean with some denatured alcohol they put 2 or 3 coats of Minwax polyurethane on it and use super fine steel wool in between coats. If you want to change the color you will have to strip it down.

Here is mine in Minwax Sedona red with 3 coats of polyurethane.

**K31** · February 19th, 2008, 06:08 PM

I use the Formby's Tung, but a 100% pure Tung would be better. Avoid the "tung oil finishes" out there as they can contain polyurethanes or other difficult-to-remove-if-you-don't-like-it-shit.

Formby's Tung oil if i'm not mistaken is also a tung oil finish so basically it is a varnish like all the rest of them. Also Tung oil finish is not hard to remove a little paint or aircraft stripper will take it right off.