Finishing Ideas for AK-47

Romanian Wood Finishing Recipe provided by Tapeo1 from akfiles.com

I started off my using a chemical paint stripper (Bix, I think) and a metal paint scrapper to remove the old varnish finish. Once the finish was removed, I soaked them in hot bleach water for a few hours. I used about 1 part clorox bleach to 2 or 3 parts hot water. If you do bleach them, be sure to remove the metal spring inside the buttstock or it'll rust out. Just FYI, some people have also report success by bleaching the wood with OxyClean. The soaking process removed most of the old stain and it also raised most of the small dents and/or gouges in the wood.

After they were done bleaching, I soaked them in hot soapy water to remove the bleach. I let them dry out for a few days and then sanded them with medium and then fine sandpaper.

To finish them, I soaked them in betadine (iodine for cuts) for a few hours. I found that Walmart had the betadine for a much lower price than my local grocery store and Walgreens or anyplace else. It was like $14 at Walgreens and $5 or so at Walmart. It can be found in the bandaid section of the pharmacy.

After they were done soaking in the betadine, I let them dry out for a day or so. Betadine is water soluable and will raise the wood grain so, I had to lightly sand them again.

Next, I applied 3 or 4 coats of diluted Minwax Red Mahogony stain. I diluted at 1 part stain to 3 or 4 parts mineral spirits.

Finally, I applied 3 or 4 coats of Zinser amber shellac. I diluted the shellac a little bit with denatured alcohol since it was a little too thick out of the can. Zinser amber shellac can be found at Home Depot in the paint section.

Here is what I got using this method. I think it could be a little redder; probably didn't use enough amber shellac.

[picture pending]

This is how I finish most of my gun wood furniture

  • paint stripper, let it soak in (read the directions), then rub it off
  • metal paint scraper - carefully (I think this step is very important)
  • 60 grit sandpaper
  • 150 grit sandpaper (I used my finish sander during this step. Some dirt has penetrated into the wood quite deep, and a finish sander won't really hurt the wood, so this is a time saver)
  • 220 grit sandpaper
  • for the upper hand guard I also used bleach because the dirt (glue??) was just not coming off with hand sanding or with a finish sander.
  • 0000 steel wool
  • tack cloth
  • tung oil finish, let try overnight
  • 0000 steel wool
  • tack cloth
  • tung oil finish, let try overnight (repeat this until you see that the tung oil is not going into the wood anymore; for me this is usually 4..6 applications)
  • you can now either be done, or put some sort of polyurethane finish coat (I did), it's harmless and it protects your tung oil finish.

Gun Metal Parts Finishing using Duplicolor from Ken in Pa (akfiles.com)

Here is a picture of my AK parts being baked in the oven. For the price, you can't bear duplicolor.

 

Just for economical reasons and convenience of it, you could just purchase a can of 1200* degree Dupli-Color/w ceramic and place your painted project into the oven for 2 hours at 300 degrees and be done with it for $4.89 at Wal-Mart or Auto-Zone.

The main trick here is to make sure all traces of grease (cosmoline) are gone before painting, and to use light, even coats when applying. Let it sit for a couple days were its warm and out of the way/then put into oven for 2 hours at 300-325 degrees.

Don't rush trying to get it all back together either, this is where a lot of guys (*the ones that put it down*) mess this not too bad/ cheaper/ paint job up at; and thats rushing putting it all back together before actually letting this paint set up for a bit. Wait a few weeks after painting and oven curing to take it out to the range and rock with it. It won't hold up to strong solvents like brake-cleaner/acetone, but it will hold up good enough for using your basic Hoppes#9 and so on.

If you just give this Dupli-Color/1200*High Heat w/ceramic/ item # BLACK DH1602 a chance, and take your time with it, you would really be surprised how good this paint really is for using on AK kit builds. For $5.00 a can you can't beat it. BTW, I use MolyResin and GunKote products now, but have used the other with good to fair results. Just my .02. Ken in Pa.