this is going to be my second run at refinishing romanian furniture for my saiga, the first time I just sanded it down and used some minwax Sedona red and then shellac, it came out pretty good. this time I'm gonna use minwax "spice" water based stain that was mixed for me at lowes, it's really red see pic below, it looks alot like the timbersmith premium stock color, then I think Im gonna finish with tung oil. let me know what ya think? I also have a question, my first set of furniture is very different from the one I have now, on the end of the but stock there is a black band of paint, and the lower grip has the numbers 1801 on it, what are those markings about? I brought some wood fillers to take the stamped numbers out, but if there is a good reason to leave it I will. check pics below...

 

Have you investigated the RIT dye method? It is the standard of AK stock refinishes. Your stain looks awfully red there.

yeah I know its pretty darn red, in lowes it looked pretty good, pic below show where I put a little on the end of my stock to test, its against my floors which are a really nice medium red...

 

 

in lowes it looked pretty close to this pic borrowed from a guy called hoohaa on the ar15.com forums

 

hoohaa used something called deft to finsh in this pic, I wanna use tung oil though...

this is hoohaas finished product hopefully mine will look close to it...

 

glennp here is the method you mentioned...

http://www.ar15.com/content/page.html?id=198

Great job ! Looks really good !

man! I found another thread were they use something called pine tar this looks absolutely beautiful!

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_4_93/135720_Pine_Tar_Application_on_Laminate_Wood.html&page=1

 

I used tung oil on my stock, but it isn't a very tough finish so it scratches easily. Looks good though.

i might change direction and do the pine tar turpentine shellac route, the finish looks so warm might be stronger too... but im having trouble finding that pine tar stuff, home depot and lowes dont carry it...anyone know somewhere up here near me that might have it?

a little update, couldnt find pine tar locally so i decided to just use the minwax spice red color and then im gonna use the old russian recipe of iodine and amber shellac, we will see how it comes out...

 

 

this shows my wood soaking in bleach all clean

this pic is shows after my wood all cleaned up with stripper and bleached looks cool!

this pic is with the minwax spice stain drying

next pic is iodine shellac mix first layer it really toned down the red... but i wish i had that pine tar to bring out the grain... oh well next time.

color changes alot in diffferent lighting, 4 coats of iodine and amber shellac. i think im gonna hit it with a couple coats of straght amber shellac tomorrow...not exactly how i wanted but still looks good, i still want to mess with that pinetar here some more pics...

this pic shows the upper hand guard against my medium red floors nice!

finished! man these saigas are fun to work on, i have changed her clothes 3 times since i got her last year... im already planning another furniture project but with that awesome pine tar!

beautiful when your ready to sell it let me know.....i love the other furniture i bought off you...

thanks civic, you got me thinking about doing this and selling them here on the forum. if the demand is there i'll do it, you guys gotta let me know if you want them...

Is Pine Tar what they put on baseball bats? I would try a dedicated paint supply store like a Sherman Williams or Benjamin Moore?

Is Pine Tar what they put on baseball bats? I would try a dedicated paint supply store like a Sherman Williams or Benjamin Moore?

 

 

yes... but I think it has to be cut with something else.. but I am no wood working expert.. just regurgitating what I think I read elsewhere..

I am sure Turpentine (Mineral Spirits) would cut it!

Is Pine Tar what they put on baseball bats? I would try a dedicated paint supply store like a Sherman Williams or Benjamin Moore?

 

Check this out.. Pine Tar

 

Harry

yup, the formula is 50/50 turpentine and pine tar. it's the same as the baseball stuff but that doesnt work as good, its lower grade. the quality of the pine tar is what makes the difference, auson pine tar is the brand, there are only 1 or 2 places that import stuff, it's expensive but the results are amazing! I have some on order for my next project...

yup, the formula is 50/50 turpentine and pine tar. it's same as the baseball stuff but that doesnt work as good, its lower grade. the quality of the pine tar is what makes the difference, auson pine tar is the brand, there only 1 or. 2 places that import it, it's expensive but the results are amazing! I have some on order for next project...

 

 

I like how you did it.. but if you could just get a little more "pop" on the grain it would be really awesome..

yeah I'm gonna redo this set, I'm not happy that the grain is not showing as much as my prior set I sold to civictuner, but I'm going to leave the minwax out this time and I'm just gonna do the old Russian formula of iodine/amber shellac, and later on another set ill do the pine tar/turpentine to compare..

here is a pic of the first furniture I did and sold to civictuner

ok here we go, stripped it again, now here are pics first coat of just iodine/amber shelack, much better, you can see the excellent grain now...