spray paint it camo. or grippy bedliner coating.

 

I used a wood stain in cherry and went lighly on the but stock as it soaks it up fast and will get really dark. The forgrip I did the same. Just take it and lightly sand it smooth and then stain it.

 

Get a polymer stock and you will be happier because you will not have that pin in the front grip that brands you when it gets hot from the barrel.

 

I rubbed mine down with about 6 coats of lemon oil, and then about six coats of paste wax, for water proofing/durability... Now its soft as a baby's butt and has that nice wood look and feel... Plus the wax instead of stain brings out the natural color of the wood, which is beautiful imo...

 

I sanded it and used red mahogany. Finished it up with a couple coats of polyurethane

 

Did the same. My pics died though.

Get a small can of stain from your local hardware store. After sanding, wipe it one with a rag, and quickly wipe it off with another rag.

If you don't wipe it off, it will turn the wood almost black.

 

I sanded the wood until it was smooth, used the stain of my choosing "classic american oak" I think...applied enough coats to suit my liking, and applied polyurothane.

Just get the stain+poly of your choice and it'll tell you what to do one the label....Only Tim Allen could fudge this up.

 

Go to lowes or home depot and take a look at their stains they have on hand. find a color you like. It's that easy. while you are there pick up some sandpaper and a few brushes.

dont forget a good sheelack or a nice sealer to put on top.

 

Spar varnish makes a great, easy to apply water resistant coating for stocks. You can get a small can of it cheaply in any Lowe's or Home Depot. If you want to stain the wood, look for it there too. Use water based. It applies more evenly.

 

there's aerosol stain too. Makes quick even work of it as long as you watch for runs

 

Sand it smooth.
Stain it the way you want (light coat applied with a rag--then excess wiped away)
Use a waterbased stain.
Then take water-based Varathane floor finish and give it three or four coats.
Make sure it is flat finish Varathane.
It think the stuff is called "diamond coat" by Varathane.
You can get it in small pint sized cans--you won't even use this much.

When it is cured up--go over the finish lightly with some steel wool to smooth out the brush marks, bubbles, etc.

This will give you a perfect durable finish on the furniture.

Here's a photo of the finished product.
This is a project that I did on my Saiga.
Note the cut-off forward hand grip and the reshaped lower handguard.
This is Romanian furniture reworked and refinished.

The cut-off hand guard will give you an idea of the "before."

ST

 

I sanded down the wood on mine, refinished with Minwick Golden Oak Stain, i think it looks great

 

thanks, takezo. My romanian has that funky front vertical grip also and it's just gotta go.

 

If you want to dump the front handle just hack it off with a hand saw leaving lot of room for shaping.

I shaped mine using a drill press and a drum-sander in the bit.
I used 60 grit and worked it down close to the shape I wanted.
You have to be careful not to take off too much.

When you get it close--then work it by hand with 60 grit until you like the contours.
I just copied a forward grip I saw off the internet and approximated its shape.
Make sure it is symetrical on both sides.
Examine it looking down the front/back periodically.
Do not take off any material from the ends where it fits into the grip retainers.

When you get it about where you want it, do a finish sanding (by hand) with 100 grit.
That's it--don't go crazy.

You could also use sealer coat before you apply the stain.
This will keep the stain from bleeding ouit in any soft spots/defects in the wood (recommended).

Then apply the finish coat as instructed above.

ST

 

Yeah I really don't like those funky verticle wood grips on AK's. I'd rather have a plastic mall ninja AK than those funky things.

 

i'm just guessing, but those grips were probably designed to help during full auto fire.
since mine's a semi, it's gotta go.

 

I'm gonna go to the red mahogany- looks better than mine, though mine is very clean.

Bulgarian Milled Arsenal Ak-47 SA 93

 

I sanded and prepped mine and then stained it with 2 coats of walnut finish and then about 4 coats of clear satin wipe on poly. it came out real nice.

 

I dyed mine red and used boiled linseed oil to finish it.

 

Thats a nice thing with WASR's, they have almost no finish on them. Mine had some smiley oil on it. Probably cosmoline.
I used a bit of 100 grit on it, unfortunatly there was an imperfection in my wood that they covered up with just glue that fell off so i made up sawdust (from the gun) and wood glue and it was was fixed right up.
I progressively went up grits until i got to what i wanted.
Applied red mahogany a couple times and then a half dozen or so layers of semi gloss.

Downside: all the wood on my stock was 3 different types of wood so they all accepted the stain differently. One is lighter and one is quite dark, to me it added a little more character because they aren't overly pretty guns to start off with.

I would avoid that Russian red crap. everyone that I've talked to has regretted the fact that they did it and now have a red gun (pun not intended).

Polymer is just a cop out and just seems like a waste on a inexpensive ak. Once you go polymer, you'll want to stick everything and the kitchen sink on the dang thing! Soon enough, you got an AR-15 barbie gun.

I find that wood adds a lot of personality to a gun and gets noticed (and complimented) more than your accessorized AR

 

All you need to do is take your stain of choice and apply several coats to your taste, rubbing the stain in with a rag between each coat. Once you have it stained the way you want it, let it dry thoroughly (usually a couple of hours) then give it a very light sanding with very fine sandpaper, wipe the dust off and start applying coats of polyurethane. Make them thin coats and sand lightly between them. The standard for household furniture is 3 or 4 coats, you will probably going to want to do several more than that for wear resistance. Besides that, give it a light sanding and a fresh coat of polyurethane every couple of years (depending on how much you use it) and it'll last forever.