yugo stock
Hello all, Iam wanting to refinish a yugo 56/99 stock and keep it close to the original color. Whats the best stain to use for this? I believe the wood is beechwood so I would imagine using a beechwood stain would be the best or should I just use a linseed oil? Thanks, SG
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Well, if you are going to refinish, it's not hard to go ahead and do it right. Laborious, perhaps, but not technically difficult.
You'll get a much better result if you use a cabinet scraper (a burnished-edged, flat piece of steel the thickness of a woodplane blade or so) and, working with the grain, take off the origional finish and shallow damage and dirt and cosmoline. Go slow until you get the hang of this if you've never done it before. Scrape in the direction that keeps the wood fibers slicked down. You'll have to change direction many times to accomodate the changing contours of the stock. Once you're down to new wood all over, sand with the grain with 100 grit, then 120, 150, 180, and finally 220. Buy a quart of Watco Danish Oil finish in the "Natural" shade, and saturate the entire stock in it, rubbing it in with a small tri-folded piece of 400 wet-or-dry. Let it soak for an hour, and wipe it completely dry with cheap paper towels, the coarser the better.
Then pour a little Danish Oil finish in the palm of your hand, rub your hands together and start rubbing the wood firmly. Rub it into all areas that have been sanded until they get hot from the friction. This step is critical to produce the best set-up and molecular bond to seal and beautify the wood finish. Wipe it tight again with fresh paper towels and let it set till the next day.
Rub drops of finish in with 600 wet-or-dry in a circular motion (without regard to the grain) the next day. It won't take but 20 minutes to do this step. It fills any microscopic pores remaining.
Put the sandpaper down and rub it hot with your hands again, then wipe it tight with fresh paper towels one last time. You now have a professional hand-rubbed finish. Any scratches or scrapes can be fixed by rubbing Watco into them with wet-or-dry or fine steel wool,
and the repair will blend perfectly and invisibly for the life of the stock. After 24 hours or so, you can wax it for extra shine.
Mineral spirits will remove wax in a few years if you want to add some more danish oil to enrich the glow. After 30+ years of furniture and cabinetmaking and wood working of all kinds I have grown to love this type of finish. It will do more to bring out the natural beauty of the wood than any other, in my opinion. Especially wood that gets handled regularly.
Here are acouple of pictures of stocks that have that finish: (The .22 was finished 10 years or more ago)
Frog.
RiBBButt...You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to. -Roger Miller0 -
Very nice work Frogbert! Ill give it a go. I dont really want the stock to look brand new, I just want to clean it up a bit. I like the worn look with the scrapes and nicks,gives it a little character. Thanks a bunch for the helpful advice. Really like the flat finish your technique gives[:)] 0 -
My method was similar to Frog's, but without as much sanding and I used Watco Teak Oil Finish. (It's baby butt smooth, but I kept the grain intact.) 0 -
Very nice![^]
Frog.
RiBBButt...You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to. -Roger Miller0 -
Thanks Frogbert. I'll be picking up my first AK in a few weeks and I'll try your Danish oil treatment on it. 0 -
Wow,Willruss! Is that blonde? Or the lighting? Either way it looks nice. The stock on mine is pretty banged up, but I like it. I,ll put a pic up of it as soon as its finished[:D] dont laugh too hard, it'll be my third stock ive refinished. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by SG
Is that blonde? Or the lighting?Yep, she's a "natural blonde", a "Cherry's" import. I picked her up from a local gun shop last year when they were having a $149 sale. It was a slow day and the clerk let me go through several boxes for the best one. This one was unissued. It was my first SKS and I had no idea what I was looking at under the 20lbs of cosmoline, but I've since learned that Cherry's imported only the best. Everything else I saw waw from other importers. I just got lucky I guess.
Here's one in sunlight. Just in case you don't recognize it, That's a TS100 Tech Sight on the back of the receiver.0 -
quote:Originally posted by WillRuss
My method was similar to Frog's, but without as much sanding and I used Watco Teak Oil Finish. (It's baby butt smooth, but I kept the grain intact.)
I just used the same oil on my Mohagany/Zebrawood Coffee table. Looks great now.
"Better to carry a pistol and not need it than need a pistol and not have it." - Me
http://www.diamondbacktactical.com/0 -
Wow you guys, awesome work on those SKS stocks...I did alot of work on mine with no where near that kind of result...maybe I need to get it out and try all over again. Mine is also a light colored stock and also an unissued Cherry's import. With mine, though, I could never get any grain to show nor could I get the discoloration out of the bottom area at the beginning of the shoulder stock, whatever that section is called...
Shane0 -
quote:Originally posted by sweaver
Wow you guys, awesome work on those SKS stocks...I did alot of work on mine with no where near that kind of result...maybe I need to get it out and try all over again. Mine is also a light colored stock and also an unissued Cherry's import. With mine, though, I could never get any grain to show nor could I get the discoloration out of the bottom area at the beginning of the shoulder stock, whatever that section is called...
Shane
Is your's a Yugo? Some of the other types used steamed elm wood, and it shows no grain but stains would permeate deeply and be non-removeable. How about a picture?
Frog.
RiBBButt...You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd, but you can be happy if you've a mind to. -Roger Miller0 -
Mine is an unissued Yugo 59/66. You can see some grain if you look closely but it seems to be obscured. I sanded some but not much, was afraid to put too much paper to it. There is heavy grain visible in the discolored areas I mentioned, looks almost like the center of the tree or maybe a knot in the part of the tree it was made from, dont know enough about wood to say for sure. I'll take some pics and show them this evening.
Shane0 -
Nice jobs and pic's show it well. I have had excellent results with hand rubbed Watco also. The furniture scraper is a good tool and does a great job, but if you have not used one much it can be tricky on the many rounded areas of a gun stock. You could:
1) just sand it, using coarse to fine to 000 steel wool, then rub the finish in,or
2) use a commercial stripper product (Toluene for the most part), paint it on and scrap/wipe it off, and 000 wool, or
3) ask a local antique restoration shop to drop it in his vat of stripper for you.
Option #3 may be the lazy mans way, trading a little cash instead of the hours of your time.
Regardless....you can't argue about the fine examples in the photos...very inspiring.
It depends on how much time you have to spend...one thing that is required to get the beautiful results shown in the photos is a BUNCH OF PATIENCE.
If we do not hang together,
We will most certainly hang separately.0 -
I know, the old timers always applied solvents & finishes with their bare hands. However, most of them died from lung cancer caused by their Lucky Strikes long before they developed the effects we now see due to chemical exposure.
All oil-based solvents & finishes are carcinogenic, mutagenic, & toxic; they should be applied in a well ventilated space (or outdoors), & while wearing heavy duty protective gloves.
Neal0
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