AK47 Wood furniture refinishing

[RO73]

Does anyone in Northern VA do wood refinishing. I have an AK that has blondish furniture and I would like a darker set. Anyone do wood refinishing in Nova?

Thanks.

This is the color/look I'm going for.

[JustinCase]

If your furniture is unfinished, as my daughter's WASR was, you can just rub in some stain...

Run by Lowes or Home Depot and pick out the colour you want.

After a few days of cure, you can add some marine grade varnish to it to protect it, or do like we did.. and just leave it stained and thats all.

Its not that hard, and you will have a LOT of pride in a job you did yourself!

GL,
JC

[RO73]

Unfortunately, It is not unfinished. How difficult is it to strip the current finish and to refinish it?

[BertMacklin]

Unfortunately, It is not unfinished. How difficult is it to strip the current finish and to refinish it?

Sand it first, add stain and then varnish. Remove just enough for it to take, if your going darker and are able to get it to penetrate then it should look alright.

[UnderwaterMike]

Unfortunately, It is not unfinished. How difficult is it to strip the current finish and to refinish it?

Easy-peasy. If it has a lot of sealer, you might want to use a stripper first so that you can avoid sanding the hell out of it. Otherwise, just follow BertMacklin's advice. I've done several stocks that way and it really is not hard at all.

[RO73]

Thank you all. What grit sandpaper are you all using? Also, are any brand of stains better than others?

[UnderwaterMike]

Thank you all. What grit sandpaper are you all using? Also, are any brand of stains better than others?

Grit depends on whether you're using stripper to start. If not, you want something coarse as a starter, to strip the gunk without clogging the paper and smearing the sealer from friction. I would suggest starting with 60 maybe, and working your way up to 200 or 220, depending on how smooth you want the end product to be. If you want a rougher look, stain with more open grain; if you want a finer look, take your sanding up to a finer paper like the 220 and/or use a sealer before staining. Just remember, you can always sand more off, but you can't put it back on!

As for stain, just go with a $4 can of Minwax or something similar from Lowe's. If you want to be real cheap, you could even use leftover deck stain. Some guys polyurethane their stocks after staining, but I like to stain and then treat with multiple coats of oil -- either tung or linseed. When I did a quick refinish on my 870 stock, I stained and then rubbed in about five coats of beeswax-based finish I got from Lowe's. I looks beautiful. In fact, it's so nice that I wish I would've taken more care in sanding and staining, to better show off the grain!

Really, unless you use something gloppy and/or get bubbles/fingerprints, it's hard to mess up.

[RO73]

Thank you all. What grit sandpaper are you all using? Also, are any brand of stains better than others?

Grit depends on whether you're using stripper to start. If not, you want something coarse as a starter, to strip the gunk without clogging the paper and smearing the sealer from friction. I would suggest starting with 60 maybe, and working your way up to 200 or 220, depending on how smooth you want the end product to be. If you want a rougher look, stain with more open grain; if you want a finer look, take your sanding up to a finer paper like the 220 and/or use a sealer before staining. Just remember, you can always sand more off, but you can't put it back on!

As for stain, just go with a $4 can of Minwax or something similar from Lowe's. If you want to be real cheap, you could even use leftover deck stain. Some guys polyurethane their stocks after staining, but I like to stain and then treat with multiple coats of oil -- either tung or linseed. When I did a quick refinish on my 870 stock, I stained and then rubbed in about five coats of beeswax-based finish I got from Lowe's. I looks beautiful. In fact, it's so nice that I wish I would've taken more care in sanding and staining, to better show off the grain!

Really, unless you use something gloppy and/or get bubbles/fingerprints, it's hard to mess up.

Great info. Thank you very much. Sounds like a great weekend project. I will document my progress with pictures and post back. Thanks again.

[M1A4ME]

take the stock/handguard off the rifle and the buttplate off the stock. No use messing up the metal finish with sandpaper or stain.

I used to used boiled linseed oil but had some issues on a couple of M1 H&R stocks so I tried tung oil instead. No more boiled linseed oil for me. Tung oil from now on.

Sometimes stain doesn't look the same on wood as it does on the top/side of the can (just for info).

I've only stained one stock before I put the oil on it. It didn't quite turn out to the color I wanted, but some day it may "age" into the color. Or I'll get used to it.

I've never stained a walnut stock, just BLO or tung oil. I did stain a birch stock. I gave up on a European Beech stock that came back from Greece on an M1 Garand. Nothing I could do would get rid of those annoying white/light circle patches in the wood that would not take stain. I tried different colors, different numbers of coats, finally "parked it" on a shelf in the shed and bought a USGI stock for it.

[Taggure]

I live in Woodbridge and if you want to bring it by we can take a look at it and see what I can do for you on the refinish. Just PM me and I will pass my details to you.

The nice thing about using Tunge Oil is that as you re-apply the tung oil over the years the woodstock will darken and give a more aged look. I use it a lot on the chairs and stools that I make and I go back over them once a year of so and it just brings out the wood grain and gives a great natural beauty to the wood. For gunstocks I have been using a gun stock wax that will polish up and protect the wood from the rain and weather.

Vern

[RO73]

I live in Woodbridge and if you want to bring it by we can take a look at it and see what I can do for you on the refinish. Just PM me and I will pass my details to you.

The nice thing about using Tunge Oil is that as you re-apply the tung oil over the years the woodstock will darken and give a more aged look. I use it a lot on the chairs and stools that I make and I go back over them once a year of so and it just brings out the wood grain and gives a great natural beauty to the wood. For gunstocks I have been using a gun stock wax that will polish up and protect the wood from the rain and weather.

Vern

Thank you Taggure. I planned on using Tung Oil. I think I'm going to give it a shot myself. It is cheap wood so if I screw it up, I can always buy another set. I appreciate the offer.