I have zero experience with wood-working or putting finishes on wood. My furniture from Ironwood will be arriving next week, need a little input on putting a pretty finish on it.

The ironwood site says to sand, apply alcohol, raise grain, sand, etc. Then to apply the oil finish. So oil goes in before adding the dye itself. Wouldn't the oil repel the dye?

And how does one choose the right dye? Am I just gonna go up to home depot and pick one out that looks like the color I'm shooting for? This is what I want to be close to with color:








I want an original ak look, so no plastic here. I have laminate wood on the way, and it's for an SSR.

The stain or dye goes on BEFORE ANY finish.
After a coat of finish, the stain will not work.

For stains, there are MANY choices, ranging from RIT fabric dye to leather dye, to commercial wood stains.
A lot of people have had very good results with Minwax "Sedona Red" stain.
It gives that nice "Russian Red" color.

Stain 1st, then finish. I did the wood on my AES-10B with no stain, just the natural color of the plywood. i used tung oil, which is super simple to apply, no brush, just rub on by hand and wipe off after 15 minutes. Rinse, lather, repeat, until the wood quits absorbing oil. BSW

You could always send it out to Z-recto to finish it.


Closet look to original commie wood

So that was just bare plywood and then the tung oil brought out that finish? Because that looks pretty good actually. Very ak'ish looking.

Quoted: So that was just bare plywood and then the tung oil brought out that finish? Because that looks pretty good actually. Very ak'ish looking.

Yep, all I did was clean the wood with dishwasher soap and let it dry. Rubbed down with coarse steel wool to start then I applied about 3 coats of tung oil, letting it dry and rubbing it down with steel wool between each coat . No stain, just the natural color of the wood.

BSW