Some cold AK's

[Neanderthal]

I braved the negative temps this morning only long enough to take a few pics of some furniture that I just refinished. A milled Arsenal SA M-7 Classic on the left and a fully converted Saiga on the right.

 

[CAR-AR-M16]

Looks good.

 

[Neanderthal]

Thanks! This is the first year for the Arsenal SA M-7 (made in 2000, there were 600 of them) and they are a bit more refined than the current SAM7 line. Here's a shot of the receiver for comparison.

 

[tou860]

Beauties!!! Let me know if I can ever take it off your hands, hehehe!

 

[steelfingers]

Very nice. I'm thinking about refinishing the furniture that came with my Romanian AK. Want to do something like the russian red or Ox blood. What do you suggest?
Below you can get a glimpse of the original wood. Think I could sand down then stain and put a few coats of clear to make it shine like a diamond.

 

[Neanderthal]

Very nice. I'm thinking about refinishing the furniture that came with my Romanian AK. Want to do something like the russian red or Ox blood. What do you suggest?
Below you can get a glimpse of the original wood. Think I could sand down then stain and put a few coats of clear to make it shine like a diamond.
View attachment 63434

Hey Al! I've tried a lot of different methods: pine tar & shellac, RIT dye, and a myriad of other stains. What I've found the easiest is to simply use food coloring for the stain. I use mostly red with a few drops of yellow food coloring. I dilute it in alcohol so it dries fast, and then add a little bit of white vinegar (my wife's idea) in order to make the colors more vibrant. If there is some wood grain that you really want to bring out, then I typically will put some light stain (minwax Early American works great) before I put the other stain on. Then I put a few coats of poly on, sand it down smooth and apply a few more coats of poly. Here's what it winds up looking like. This is a Bulgarian handguard set, I put a dowel in the hole at the front and sanded it down before staining.

 

[gfercaks33]

Iodine rubbed into the wood covered shellac looks good

 

[steelfingers]

Hey Al! I've tried a lot of different methods: pine tar & shellac, RIT dye, and a myriad of other stains. What I've found the easiest is to simply use food coloring for the stain. I use mostly red with a few drops of yellow food coloring. I dilute it in alcohol so it dries fast, and then add a little bit of white vinegar (my wife's idea) in order to make the colors more vibrant. If there is some wood grain that you really want to bring out, then I typically will put some light stain (minwax Early American works great) before I put the other stain on. Then I put a few coats of poly on, sand it down smooth and apply a few more coats of poly. Here's what it winds up looking like. This is a Bulgarian handguard set, I put a dowel in the hole at the front and sanded it down before staining. View attachment 63444
View attachment 63445

That's the look I going for. When it warms up, I'll be getting in touch to get the mixtures (that's new one with the minwax early american)
Thanks.

 

[DavidMcmillan]

Very nice work. Wood still wins for me.

 

[YukonGlocker]

Hey Al! I've tried a lot of different methods: pine tar & shellac, RIT dye, and a myriad of other stains. What I've found the easiest is to simply use food coloring for the stain. I use mostly red with a few drops of yellow food coloring. I dilute it in alcohol so it dries fast, and then add a little bit of white vinegar (my wife's idea) in order to make the colors more vibrant. If there is some wood grain that you really want to bring out, then I typically will put some light stain (minwax Early American works great) before I put the other stain on. Then I put a few coats of poly on, sand it down smooth and apply a few more coats of poly. Here's what it winds up looking like. This is a Bulgarian handguard set, I put a dowel in the hole at the front and sanded it down before staining. View attachment 63444
View attachment 63445

Those look great!