I've been wanting to give my Russian AK74 that early with/wood furniture look, but what a hassle it has been to get some proper, authentic Russian furniture. I've been looking for months and I have found a few for sale, but they're usually very expensive or I miss the deals. I eventually found some through a Russian seller on Etsy, but it turned out that was a scam and Etsy had to refund my money. About one month ago I found another source in Rostov-on-Don (Russian Federation) and he cane through for about 1/3 the total cost. The only thing I'm missing is the plastic pistol grip, but that's on the way and should be here this week.




Its AK103ish brother in proper polymer furniture



The Russians

All AK's are better with wood.

How are you securing your slings?

Velcro straps.

Is it Velcro’d to the FSB also?

No, just tight behind the gas block. I use a velcro strap to secure most my rifles' slings. Keeps them tidy and they're easy to pull off.

There's wrong and then there's double wrong



OP, nice choice on the wood. I myself have always wanted a set like that but drifted too far into the practical polymer realm (unlike those heathens above) and so never picked any up, but I do appreciate it. Very hot

I have no issues with AKs sporting polymer or tacti-cooled AKs. I guess it's not so much that I prefer the wood, it's probably more so that I prefer my weapons to look the way they did when they were issued, wood or otherwise.

Awesome.

The wood looks incredible. I find no fault with your taste in rifles.

The wood set looks awesome & going to be more authentic looking with the grip.

You know me, I am also a diehard laminate guy
Wish I hadn't sold the fixed stock SLR105


Also, to OPs choice of sunburst wood, I also regret selling my Ironwood Designs set refinished by ZRecto


I wish I had more rifles just for the furniture options

Yes, I agree! I'm trying to be patient. Item tracking through Russia is quite detailed until it gets to their customs. Then it disappears. Next thing I know, it shows up at my door, delivered by USPS, but it never shows up on the USPS Informed Deliver emails. It's like Christmas in July!

As soon as it arrives, it will be installed on the gun within 5 minutes and I'll post an updated pic and a family pic with the rest of my AKs and VZ58. I suppose I could then sell the old stock and recover some of the cost too.

Grip is here!



And a family pic.

That’s hot!

Winning, plain and simple

I have no idea what good wood is on an AK.  How would you rate this one?

Attached File


I didn't shine and polish the wood like a piece of fine furniture like some of you though.

Are the Velcro loops for sling management?

(Also the grip gets a nod as well)

Yes, the Velcro loops are for the slings. It keeps them in place while they're stored and they're easy to put on and take off. Simple and inexpensive solution.

That wood is very nice as is. I wouldn't mind having that, so if you're interested, I have the polymer set fresh off my Russian I'd trade for that wood.



None of the wood on my guns has been shined and polished. I guess the mindset for anyone is what you want the guns to look like. I like mine to look nice and I take care of them. If the BFPU is your look or your AK is a truck gun, then the look you're wanting is different. Some guys just want that rough look. To each his own.

For example, the wood stock I just got from Russia went from the mailing box to my gun and it looks nice, as is. Same with the Chinese spiker, the fixed stock Yugo, and the AMD grips. The Polish underfolder wood has never been touched. For the most part, the wood on all the guns has only received bee's wax regularly to preserve it however, which does give them a bit of a sheen, but the goal has always been to keep the wood from drying out.

Admittedly, some of the pieces that were in bad shape did have to be restored (steamed/sanded) so they had to be refinished, like the Yugo underfolder. Being in a dry safe out of the elements (unlike a real AK) has maintained the nice look from the preservation. The wood on the Bulgarian milled was restained to get the desired color because it was a mixed, takeoff set. The Bulgarian SSR85's wood was a Hungarian set, in the white, unfinished, so it had to be stained. The Maadi's wood was in really bad shape so I did sand it that and put three coats of amber shellac to closely match the original. I'm a bit more careful than the Egyptians in the shellac application and didn't use a dirty mop though, so it looks rather nice, in my opinion.

Here's the dark stain I used on the milled wood to get the different woods to match...

The final result was, at first, a bit dark,

but lightened up to where it is today. If you look closely, you can see the slight color difference between the wood used for the stock and for the grip.



The Yugo underfolder wood the day I got it.

And after I steamed the dents out and refnished it


The SSR's wood in the white

And after


Maadi, post shellac.

Great job on that yugo underfolder. That is a serious improvement.
thanks for the reply

Its genius! I literally have them flopping around all over the place in the safe. I am going to adopt your method instead.

I'm looking too.

How much?
Contact info?

The Maadi's I saw in the Suez didn't look that nice, not even close

I sent my contact an email to see if it's okay to share his email address. I'll let you know what he says and the price would be between you two. If he agrees, I'll PM you his info along with some suggestions to make the transaction because he speaks no English.


ETA: My contact said OK, so I IM'd you his email address.

I spent a year in Egypt as an advisor with the 262nd Regiment in Abu Suweir and you're quite right, all the Maadis I saw looked like shit. Our MISR security used Romanian AKMs and they looked like shit too. In general, they treated and maintained their equipment quite poorly. Truly, AKs were designed for forces like theirs.

This, makes me miss the 74 I had a decade ago.

I was there for oil and gas and most of our 'security' detail had them, and all of them were beat to shit and falling apart. Their training looked to be about as effective as their rifles too, but the guys that had the MP5s had that stone cold killer look. Pretty sure those guys were going to get it done if something happened


OTOH the real AK103s I saw in Cairo and Giza were in top notch condition. Probably because they were brand new and hadn't been neglected yet

Wow, I never saw an MP5 or an AK103 the whole time I was there! You must have had better security than we did.

Story time...I got back to my apartment in Ismailia one day and noticed our guards were quite frantic. Something was up, but they wouldn't share with me what the problem was. Eventually one of them broke down and admitted the guard in guard shack had disassembled his Helwan pistol and couldn't put it back together. He had been showing it off to his buddies, screwed up and was now afraid he'd get executed or something. Mr. Carlos came through though and put it back together for him, becoming a hero for the remaining time I was there. It was quite obvious the pistol had probably never been cleaned since it had old sand and oil cakes throughout. I did Mustafa a solid and wiped down the inside and used motor oil dripping from a reconstructed Fiat as lube. I sacrificed my pencil as a cleaning rod and gave it to Mustafa as a bonus. Good as new. Made me wonder what sort of protection these guys would have provided if the shit had ever hit the fan. No wonder they replaced my windows with bullet resistant glass - at least it would have given us a chance.