WASR furniture refinishing ?

**40twist** · November 19th, 2008, 02:24 PM

You guys that have refinished the furniture on your AK's , do you have any tips? I read a few tips online and so far I have heard that I should take the wood off and then bake it in the oven to get the cosmo out of it , then sand it. What temp and how long should this be done? After it is sanded can you just use minwax stain and then lacquer it? Or should I just minwax it and then coat it with tung oil? I bought the stain I like and some lacguer and also some tung oil but I want to know the best way to go about doing this before I attempt it. Thanx once again ahead of time for any info !!

**TaurusGuy** · November 19th, 2008, 07:57 PM

Well...I may catch flak for this but when I did mine, I didn't bake it or anything. I removed the stocks and I did sand it which seemed to work fine for me. I then coated it with Minwax stain. Once that dried, I added 3 gloss coats (allowing time to dry in between each one). It may not be a work of art but I am happy with how it came out.

**MartinBrody** · November 19th, 2008, 08:54 PM

I didn't bake either, just lightly sanded and wiped down good with mineral spirits. I just used 6 light coats of tru-oil, so I have no comment on stain, lacquer or tung-oil. I got a nice hard finish so I can't complain, but I sold the rifle so I can't say how it holds up long-term.

**ScottP** · November 19th, 2008, 10:50 PM

Can someone tell me how to get the lower handguard off? I'm going to be refinishing mine, but I looked at the lower handguard and can't see how to get it off. Thanks!

**Jackal** · November 19th, 2008, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by ScottP

Can someone tell me how to get the lower handguard off? I'm going to be refinishing mine, but I looked at the lower handguard and can't see how to get it off. Thanks!

http://www.gunsnet.net/Linx310/furnitureremoval.htm for handguard removal.

For furniture, I got some nice cherry red. I sanded vigorously (perhaps too much as they fit loose now) and then stained. Mineral spirits didn't work for me.

**40twist** · November 20th, 2008, 09:01 AM

Taurus do you have a pic of yours?? I trying to decide to use stain or just use the tung oil. Tung oil seems to be the most popular on the ak forums but I did get some minwax also so If you have a pic that would be awesome.

**brian** · November 20th, 2008, 05:58 PM

somewhere i thought i thought i read, seen or heard that the original finish had something to do with shellac.

so just removed wood from rifle.
wiped down with denatured alcohol.
cut some shellac with above, and put a few coats on.
then wiped over it with steel wool to take a bit of the shine off.
i've heard that it's not the most durable finish, but i was aiming for the most authenic approach.