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Posted: 6/21/2005 11:37:12 AM EDT
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I want to refinish the bare wood on my latest project and I wanted to brainstorm with you guys before I start experimenting on scrap wood. Has anyone tried the red stains made by MinWax in order to try to reproduce the "Russian Red" that is so desirable among AK fans? It looks like it is pretty close. Maybe a mixture of a MinWax Sedona Red with a little bit of brown. Just an idea. I know someone has tried it somewhere on this board. Pictures would be nice to help those of us that are thinking about a home AKM refinish job. I have seen some good pictures of different techniques in the archives. Unfortunately, most of the pictures have been lost due to the time lapse. Post some pictures of your home made furniture finishes and an explanation of how you did it. Judging by Tantal's site there is a lot of variance in the coloring of Russian furniture. Russian Furniture Sound off and show that imitation Russian Lumber! |
Like this? I mostly used a combination of methods from this site and others including the Ironwood Designs site. Rit dye is the bomb! I used the Scarlet red, Sunburst Orange and brown. I made a mixture of the three to do most of the staining....mostly orange with some red and a touch of brown to make a kind of iodine/red color. I used this on the raw wood first. This first coat was followed by two coats of straight scarlet red. Now this made it way too red! Next was a coat of straight brown to tone it down, followed by three more coats of the mixture to bring in the orange and yellow tones. Keep in mind that the color you see will not be the color that you end up with after finish is applied. I used Formby's high gloss tung oil....4 coats, buffed with 0000 steel wool between coats Here it is on an AK:   
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The Russians didn't use a stain on their stocks. The color was in the shellac they used. You can get kinda close to the Russian red with stains though. Z_Recto (the best stock finisher IMHO) did a stockset for a Maadi I have using the color in the shellac method similar to how the Russians do it. Stock set |
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If you want to do it yourself do a search for "garnet shellac" on gunsnet (I know, forgive me) I can't remember the guys name, but he has some good info. Also, Teadie has some GREAT refinishing threads over there. If you want it to look authentic, contact Z-Recto. |
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