Taking a sec to brag a bit.

Both of these guns are Romy G builds and I used the furniture that came with the kit.  

The first one I Sanded down to bare wood then stained/poly coated with two coats.

Hard to get a decent pic because the wood is so shiny, but they look beautiful in person.






On the other end of the spectrum you can go this way.

Romy G wood sanded down to bare and then just stained.

Gets a nice satin look after two coats.  Even added the black stripe.  Also wire wheeled the but plate down to bare and poly'd that too.  

This beautiful gun found a new owner last weekend, hated to let it go

Looking good man, let me know your stripping technique for that ridiculously thick old finish.

Ridiculously thick is right! In desperation I even tried a wire wheel on the finish...Kind of knew what was going to happen but it trashed the wood.  Cant recommend that trick

this is what I do, that works, In this order

1: Zipstrip Marine Strength [totally soaked]
2: scrape off zipstrip and hopefully old poly
3: 60grit to bare wood
4: 150grit to knock down the marks from the 60
5: 220grip to knock down the 150 marks
6: 000 steel wool to finish it off if there are any marks from the 220, not always necessary

Tack cloth it clean and your done.

Here is another example of a nice set I did last night:





this set is done is a deep burgundy and ultra glossy.  The rifle that matches this set isn't done yet but I'll get some pics up of it when its put together.

-Matt

What color is that stain? I love that color. Nice work!

S.O.

Thanks

First one is called:
Olde Maple Gloss #430

Satin is called:
Cherry #235

Lastly, the dark one is called:
Bombay Mahogany Gloss #480

All stains are Minwax brand, my personal fav.  Two coats were used in each of the pics.

looks VERY nice!!!!!  it about matches my rit dye and deft clear.......i like the deft gloss clear cuz it shoes the grain really well and is deep looking

Both of you have freaking beautiful AK furniture.  I would almost feel bad installing that on one of my homebuilt guns.  

gllgll, thanks for posting the detailed method you used.  I have seen several other threads where people posted up great looking furniture they had refinished, but they didn't share the method they used, just named the stain.  Thanks.  I will be working on my Romy furniture soon, so I definitely appreciate the steps you listed.

TAG FOR NEXT BUILD!

Nice job!!!

Nice furniture!! Where do you get that Zipstrip and how long do you soak it?

hey gllgll ...

how did you get that sheen so shiny and bright ? please describe in detail your process for finishing  .. did you strip and then bathe in bleach ? . and then stain, and then poly ?

is that poly or shellack ? .. aerosol can or paint can with brush ? .. i NEED to know how to make that almost WET look .. i love that wet look !

hey is this stain you used .. the bombay .. oil or water based ?

chrisp92 notes to self ... Bombay Mahogany Gloss #480 .... mwahahahahah .. !

If you can make chocolate milk, I'm confidant that you can handle this project.

The key here is surface prep.

The wood must be CLEAN BARE and all scratch marks must be gone.  Scratches from sanding that is.

Zipstrip.  another Keystone to prep.  I was wrong in my earlier post, its just zipstrip original formula.  Just keep it on until the old finish starts to bubble.  Scrape it off and put another coat on...etc etc... I also used a scrap piece of very thin brass to scrape with.  Try using a plastic putty knife and it will melt! A steel putty knife will probably gouge the wood too.  Havent tried marine jelly yet but that will probably work too www.starbronze.com/720.html

Strip the wood, don't bathe it in bleach.  No need.

Minwax makes a wonderful product.  Its called POLYSHADES Get the Gloss Can!! [they make two diff. types] www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=25226-24-61480&lpage=none hope that link works.

With this product, Stain and Polyurethane is applied in one step.  So there is no need to take days staining, and then days more applying the poly.  My application consists of a sponge brush, thats it.  I dont try and save them though, the poly gums 'em up pretty bad, so plan on paying .50 cents for each coat you want.

Cheese cloth or Tack Cloth as you know removes dust very well, a must before any finish is applied.

As I said before, the finish is a polyurethane.  It is also, to the best of my knowledge, water based.  

I only do two coats, but you can put as many as you want on.  With the darker colors, two will be a must.

The water look is just the way the minwax looks.  Its great stuff!

Schweeeeet looking furniture guys .
Something to look forward to when I finish mine.
Good job & thanks for posting pics

Getit could you tell us which Rit dye colors or numbers you used, and how much of each?  Could you give us the step by step?  (perhaps a new how-to thread would be better?)  

The dyed wood looks superb!  

Tag

Quoted: Tag

+1

Nice work!

+1 for the Minwax Polyshades, I used Bombay Mahogany satin on my romy...about 4 times before I got a finish with no drips

Tag for future project.

a little note for you all...  
minwax polyshades is a polyurithane with colourant in it, it looks outstanding, however, when you scratch it, it looks like crap, because youre now looking at unstained wood.  

i would recomend against any hard top coats, coloured or not.  if you want gloss, step sand it up to like a 500 grit or finer, and oil it
my exp with guns is limited, but my exp with paints/stains is up there.  

That is sooo sweet looking.

Once I get that bubbly crap varnish off, I'm thinking of a nice, dark walnut stain, then several coats of a satin poly.

I want an almost black finish, where you can just see the grain.

Evil Black Gun, baby!

Quoted: That is sooo sweet looking. Once I get that bubbly crap varnish off, I'm thinking of a nice, dark walnut stain, then several coats of a satin poly. I want an almost black finish, where you can just see the grain. Evil Black Gun, baby!

evil black gun with big white scratches

Do you think a coat of minwax Helmsman would hurt the wet look? I want to protect it as much as possible from humidity and rain....

S.O.

DANG  ! !  DANG  ! !   DANG  ! !

My last few builds were "utility" grade . . .

Now I see these works of art and now it looks like I'm gonna have to build at least a few more  ! ! ! !

DANG ! ! ! ! ! !

For what it's worth, the Russians used a shellac finish on their furniture.  While not the most durable finish, shellac does offer some advantages in that 1) it dries very quickly and 2) repairs are easily performed since shellac is disolved with alcohol, when you get a scratch in shellac, you simply apply more shellac to the scratch and the old finish begins to dissolve a bit and melts in with the newly applied shellac.

BTW, while on the other site, I saw this post by Hopster who did an incredible job restoring damaged old soviet wood.  His work is simply amazing and he uses a shellac based finish like the russians did....www.akforum.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=3099