What finish is the most common on a Bulgarian AK-74?
My Bulgarian AK-74 is parkerized. I want to make it more traditional looking by adding a light spray on finish that should stick to the parkerizing well. Would just a high heat ceramic type paint do or would Duracoat be better. Are the factory rifles gloss, semi gloss or a matte black?
My AK-74 was built by Ohio Rapid Fire from a new, all matching de-milled Bulgarian military rifle kit.
The metal finish is original and it's a flat black or matte black, but not a totally flat. This is hard to describe exactly.
The metal has no shine but it isn't the velvet-like total flat of sprayed on Flat Black paint.
The muzzle brake is parkerized, with most other parts having the black paint finish.
I used to get the same type of finish by adding a small amount of Gloss Black to Flat Black paint. I'd add just enough to slightly reduce the totally flat velvet-like surface you get when you spray on Flat Black. This prevented the Flat Black from getting shiny blotches where it was handled and the flat paint was worn slightly.
I'd look at Lauer Duracoat.
They have a lot of different black colors. I'd just email them and ask which of their blacks most closely matches the AK rifles. I'm sure they've been asked this many times.
I went with Brownells Gun-Kote (oven cure) black semi-gloss; came out real nice.
