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Page AK-47 » Egyptian
AK Sponsor: palmetto
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Posted: 2/26/2013 4:30:38 AM EDT
I recently assembled a fixed stock Maadi AK47 kit. What products specifically do I need to use to closely replicate the stain color that came on the wood in my kit? This is a build from a 1987 fixed stock Maadi kit. It might just be me but on this rifle it appears the wood is darker than what I have seen on the two tone light and dark ones. Mine appears to be all dark with the circle K stamp on the front lower handguard.
I love this color and the glow and depth the finish has.
When I go to refinish it, will I lose that circle K mark on the lower handguard? Any way to replicate that mark if refinished or preserve the mark in the finish somehow?
The furniture definitely needs refinished. It's got a lot of scrapes and gouges. What should I use to fill those damage spots?
Is there a particular AK47 wood refinishing guide someone has put together here with the steps that are taken to do it all right?
My goal is to keep the color as original as possible put repair/cover as many of the dents, gouges and scrapes as possible and end with a shinier protected end product that looks super clean and beautiful with same traits the wood currently has (color,depth,glow).

Link Posted: 2/26/2013 9:17:18 AM EDT
[Last Edit: AEnemaBay] [#1]
Zinsser Bulls-Eye Amber Shellac is a dead-on match. I'm refinishing the wood in my Egyptian kits currently and I'm very pleased with three coats of the amber shellac.
Link Posted: 2/26/2013 11:04:02 AM EDT
[#2]
cool. so it gives the slightly darker color vs the lighter color that I see on some of the Maadi upper handgaurds right?
Link Posted: 2/26/2013 11:52:39 AM EDT
[#3]
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
cool. so it gives the slightly darker color vs the lighter color that I see on some of the Maadi upper handgaurds right?


That's going to be determined by the upper handguard's color. On two of my kits the upper is naturally darker wood, but on my third kit the wood is the same color as the lower. So if I wanted to make the upper darker on that one I would have to stain it first.
Link Posted: 2/26/2013 1:50:26 PM EDT
[#4]
Good info to know. What methods have you used to work over the wood to get rid of the dings, gouges and scrapes? I will try to post more pics of the wood to show my concern areas.

Break it down to the elementary school style if you can. This the first wood stock firearm I have owned that has required restoration of the wood furniture. If you have detailed links that would help too.

I'm going all out on the metal components with the parkerizing I will be doing + paint. So I want the wood to look as nice as possible, yet not replace it with new wood in order to keep as much of the original kit together as possible. Even though I want to keep the original color and appearance properties of the current finish on the wood, I don't mind embellishing it a little and giving it more gloss/shine/depth then what the current coat has.
Link Posted: 2/26/2013 4:19:31 PM EDT
[#5]
Anything you do is more than likely still going to show through the finish. Especially on such a transparent finish like shellac. In the past I've used epoxy to fill in large dents and gouges. You basically mix up some epoxy and glob it into the gouge. Then you place a piece of masking tape over it to flatten it out. When it's dry you remove the tape, file down the excess (if needed), and then begin your sanding starting at 60 grit. This will a least give the handguard a smooth feel even though it may not completely hide it.
Link Posted: 2/26/2013 4:29:39 PM EDT
[#6]
Here's an example of using epoxy, but in a different way. The laminate layers of this Maadi stock were peeling near the wrist. I applied epoxy and clamped it down. When it dried I started sanding it at 60 grit and right now it's at 400 grit. You can't even tell anything was ever wrong.

Link Posted: 2/26/2013 4:32:59 PM EDT
[#7]
Here's an example of sanding to 400 grit, applying amber shellac, knocking it down with steel wool, and reapplying. These have three coats. If you want a more shiny finish apply more coats and don't steel wool the final coat.



Link Posted: 2/27/2013 4:09:55 AM EDT
[#8]
How long did you allow each coat of shillac to dry?
Link Posted: 2/27/2013 6:25:01 AM EDT
[#9]
Shellac usually only needs about 30mins to dry. Its humidity dependent though. I prefer to use shellac for all my woodworking projects. IDK why I never thought to use it on a gun stock. Its be weakness is water though. There was way to mitigate that with topcoats of lacquer or simply coating it with paste wax often.
Link Posted: 2/27/2013 9:48:49 PM EDT
[#10]
For the metal butt plate and rear sight, what are those parts coated with? It looks like the buttstock plate is blued maybe? Either that or the paint is worn off of it. The front sight almost looks blued too. When I sandblast all the metal parts, I want to ensure I re-coat them correctly.
Link Posted: 2/27/2013 10:44:29 PM EDT
[#11]
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
For the metal butt plate and rear sight, what are those parts coated with? It looks like the buttstock plate is blued maybe? Either that or the paint is worn off of it. The front sight almost looks blued too. When I sandblast all the metal parts, I want to ensure I re-coat them correctly.


Everything except the rear sight and magazine catch were painted. The rear sight and catch were blued and then installed after the rifle was painted.
Link Posted: 2/28/2013 11:21:33 AM EDT
[#12]
Is there anything on an AK other than the bolt assembly that parkerizing solution WILL NOT parkerize? (i.e. aluminum, steel, titianium)

As you suggested I'm going to leave that rear sight leaf alone with no parkerizing regardless to keep it close to factory. Probably blue that.

Disassembled the AK last night. Took all of the wood off and cleaned degreased all of the other pieces as much as possible by hand. Going to put these parts through a hot degreasing solution piror to the sand blasting to get all the grease and particle out of the nooks and crannys I can't get to.
Link Posted: 2/28/2013 11:50:24 AM EDT
[#13]
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Is there anything on an AK other than the bolt assembly that parkerizing solution WILL NOT parkerize? (i.e. aluminum, steel, titianium)


No, and you CAN parkerize the bolt assembly. Just disassemble it first.
Link Posted: 2/28/2013 11:31:19 PM EDT
[#14]
Originally Posted By AEnemaBay:
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Is there anything on an AK other than the bolt assembly that parkerizing solution WILL NOT parkerize? (i.e. aluminum, steel, titianium)


No, and you CAN parkerize the bolt assembly. Just disassemble it first.


Maybe its the piston I'm thinking about? So the bolt carrier and bolt will take parkerizing?

What about the butt plate from the stock? That part looks blued or anodized. Will it park?

Also what about the slight swivel ring on from the buttstock? Have you parkerized those?

Maybe what I should ask is, what parts won't parkerize on an AK ?
Link Posted: 3/1/2013 7:32:58 PM EDT
[#15]
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Originally Posted By AEnemaBay:
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Is there anything on an AK other than the bolt assembly that parkerizing solution WILL NOT parkerize? (i.e. aluminum, steel, titianium)


No, and you CAN parkerize the bolt assembly. Just disassemble it first.


Maybe its the piston I'm thinking about? So the bolt carrier and bolt will take parkerizing?

What about the butt plate from the stock? That part looks blued or anodized. Will it park?

Also what about the slight swivel ring on from the buttstock? Have you parkerized those?

Maybe what I should ask is, what parts won't parkerize on an AK ?


If it's carbon steel and has a rough finish it will parkerize. The gas piston will not since it's chrome plated. There isn't any aluminum on a combloc AKM.
Link Posted: 3/3/2013 3:08:33 AM EDT
[Last Edit: MustangSteveGT] [#16]
Bought the Zinsser Bulls-Eye Amber Shellac you suggested. I chose to go the acetone route to get the old finish off. Tonight the wood furniture is soaking in an acetone bath. Got some wood filler pens. They came in a kit of like 5 shades of wood color. They look like thick crayons and fill in the gouges this stock has. They are all throughout the stock in the dark spots and brown spots, so thought that might be the a good way to fill in the gouges.
Made a mesh basket to dip all the small receiver parts and retaining pins into for the parkerizing process. I bought a bunch of cheap stainless steel mud pans from harbor freight which my friend is welding together to make a long enough tub for the ak metal assembly and future projects.
Going to find a small thing of lacquer to fill in the arabic engravings with so when I parkerize and paint it, I can scrape the finish off easy out of the recesses of the engraving and still stow the arabic numbers the way the rifle originally looked. Read some where the laquer is good for covering surfaces you dont want the parkerizing solution to coat.
Still waiting for the parkerizing and degreasing solution to show up. That order should come with the rubber plugs they suggest to protect the chrome barrel lining from the degreasing solutions which will strip and pit the chrome really bad from what I read in the description.
Using a big cheap electric griddle as the heat source. Have candy thermometers to ensure we keep the tubs burning at the right temps throughout.
The parkerizing probably wont happen until next weekend when my friend gets back in and can weld the mud pans together and let me borrow his sand blaster.
Going to sandblast and reblue the rear sight leaf. I picked up some white nail polish and plan to paint the arabic sight numbers in with fine brush the wipe off excess with nail polish remover on paper shop towel. All I have sitting around here and also all I could find out in town right now is the crappy birchwood casey bluing which I used on an old shot gun recently and wasnt overly impressed with the number of coats it took to make it close to black. However, with it just being one small piece, even having to put many coats on wont require a lot of energy,
Link Posted: 3/3/2013 10:57:29 AM EDT
[Last Edit: AEnemaBay] [#17]
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Still waiting for the parkerizing and degreasing solution to show up. That order should come with the rubber plugs they suggest to protect the chrome barrel lining from the degreasing solutions which will strip and pit the chrome really bad from what I read in the description.


What degreasing solution are you going to be using? The only thing that I know of right off the bat that will strip and pit chrome is hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid). If that's the main ingredient you'll have to be careful because if it will pit chrome it will pit steel faster. Make sure you don't plug the bores when you actually parkerize.
Link Posted: 3/3/2013 3:10:18 PM EDT
[#18]
Originally Posted By AEnemaBay:
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Still waiting for the parkerizing and degreasing solution to show up. That order should come with the rubber plugs they suggest to protect the chrome barrel lining from the degreasing solutions which will strip and pit the chrome really bad from what I read in the description.


What degreasing solution are you going to be using? The only thing that I know of right off the bat that will strip and pit chrome is hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid). If that's the main ingredient you'll have to be careful because if it will pit chrome it will pit steel faster. Make sure you don't plug the bores when you actually parkerize.


http://www.shootersolutions.com/4cmet.html
Using this stuff. To make sure all the debris and stuff built up in all the nooks and crannys gets desolved and removed prior to the parkerizing process.

Parkerizing: If there is sand, or dust residue, even hidden inside the metal, it will "froth" or dissolve it out, and if not brushed off/out of the metal, it will "cottage cheese" out of it in a Parkerizing Solution (Since the sand will be disolved). If there is enough volume of it in solution, it will need to be filtered out of the "Park" solution - hot or cold.


What is converts is 100% of even the microscopic rust and black oxide that can only be viewed by microscope into a converted, conductive coating, which is either clear, or containing a white powder that is easily brushed off.


On the quart volume specific page link..
it is strongly recommended you have or get Silicone Bore Plugs, because this will strip chrome out of barrels fast ("cleaning") AND it will pit the insides 10 times worse (even cold) as hot Parkerizing will. It's pH is as low as Parkerizing Concentrate (Of course that is because it IS a concentrate, which is why the investment amount is where it is.)
Link Posted: 3/3/2013 10:06:38 PM EDT
[Last Edit: MustangSteveGT] [#19]
Soaked the furniture in the acetone all last night. Soaked the furniture in bleach for a couple hours. Scrubbed and rinsed the surface. Then ran all the furniture through the dish washer with heated dry setting used. The wood came out pretty dry, very very clean and even smelled like new wood after taking it out of the dish washer. The dishwasher was pretty effective in getting the remaining discolored areas out of the wood. I used a little sand paper throughout to remove old finish from stubern areas but I think the dishwasher would have done the job too. Also, the dishwasher was very effective and pushing out the gouges and scrapes in the wood. The one deep gouge I was worried about got filled out about half way, lowering the need for me to use the wood filler as nearly as much as I thought I would.


Link Posted: 3/6/2013 4:08:00 PM EDT
[#20]
Put 4 coats of shellac on the furniture since my last post. The bleach solution and dishwasher really brought the wood down to its true color. However, since I more intended on a darker shade of finish like it came with, I should have only put the wood through the acetone and not the bleach especially. The contrast on the wood and how clear the pattern is, would be the highpoints of how it turned out though. It looks great and similar to many other egyptian AKMs I have seen, but not quite as dark as the wood how it came as a kit. If this furniture becomes scrapped up from using the rifle, I will remember that when refinishing the wood in the future.
I took some fine picks and scraped out the circle K egyptian proof mark on the lower handguard that got smoothed out from the stripping process. So that made it through the process quite well.
For now the wood and finish looks beutiful even though it is not the darker shade I had in my mind and I will keep it like this for a while. I will post some pics later.
Going with a less agressive degreaser for the parkerizing process. Just dont want to risk hurting the chrome barrel.
Link Posted: 3/6/2013 8:56:56 PM EDT
[#21]

Heres a pic I took this afternoon. Going to let it all sit for a while. Thats 4 layers of shellac. Thats about as good as I'm going to get it. I like the wood pattern on this furniture. A fair amount of contrast from the different colored rings.
Link Posted: 3/6/2013 10:18:45 PM EDT
[#22]
Looks good.
Link Posted: 3/6/2013 11:02:07 PM EDT
[#23]
Originally Posted By AEnemaBay:
Looks good.

I remember on one of the posts here someone said something about shellac being susceptible to water damage or water being something that can hurt the finish over prolonged exposure maybe.
Is there any product you might suggest to go over the shellac with for added protection? Or only leave it as is?
Link Posted: 3/7/2013 9:16:47 AM EDT
[#24]
Originally Posted By MustangSteveGT:
Originally Posted By AEnemaBay:
Looks good.

I remember on one of the posts here someone said something about shellac being susceptible to water damage or water being something that can hurt the finish over prolonged exposure maybe.
Is there any product you might suggest to go over the shellac with for added protection? Or only leave it as is?


I use Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil as a clear coat on my stocks when I know they're going to be exposed to the elements for long periods of time. Rub it in with a rag, let it fully dry (a few hours), and then buff with either steel wool or a rag. Repeat until you get your desired shine.
Link Posted: 3/7/2013 2:55:55 PM EDT
[#25]
Thanks for info. I'll be looking for some of that next time I'm out by my gun store.
Link Posted: 3/9/2013 7:36:40 AM EDT
[#26]



Pieced it together today to fit it all after all that new finish going on.
Link Posted: 3/10/2013 3:36:27 AM EDT
[Last Edit: MustangSteveGT] [#27]
as interesting as it may have looked with the lighter blond caramel type colored furniture, I had to change it. It was bugging me. So I took it back down to the wood and restained it a darker color to get it closer to the darker colored with it came with from the parts kit.

So far it looks better and this time around my technique also improved (better application, less streaks/drip marks ect) So all around better in my opinion.

I will post pics tomorrow maybe.

Used a darker 'dark rosewood' stain for the upper hand guard that seems to nail the color  the original dark factory upper hand guard perfectly. Then I used a dark walnut stain for the lower hand guard and butt stock. Then built up a few coats of amber shellac over that, which so far is giving it the right hue showing through on the lighter stripes in the wood that I was observing with the factory finish when held up the light.

Edit:
Here's the recent color I made the wood this weekend. It's darker like I wanted it.

Link Posted: 5/1/2013 12:21:42 AM EDT
[#28]
if you want a little darker finish, you need to put some dark brown dye in the shellac.  fiebings works well.  if you are near the 951, I can give you a little bit.
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