So, on my last trip to Kyrgyzstan (returning from RC South), I spied a HUGE trunk full of ex-Soviet coins!! I looked and looked, and finally found a nice sharp one from '86, the year I was born... I then realized that my Romy back home was also born in '86, and I sprung this grand idea; use this coin and inlay it into the foregrip!! After all, I contoured and refinished the Romy donkey dick anyway, so why not cut it up again in the interest of awesomeness!? :D

Then I got to thinking: Which side would look better, the CCCP with crest, or the denomination with date!? Couldn't decide, so I got one for each side. :)

But thinking it over left me with some questions:

1. What should I use to finish over the coins and wood? A fiberglass resin, or a polyurethane resin? Maybe just a clear-coat of poly wood sealant? Some shellac, caviar, and Babushka Olga's toenails for authenticity? It has a wire folder, so I'm not concerned with matching the finish; the gas tube piece can be redone too if push comes to shove...

2. Will the coins continue to oxidize (copper/bronze type material) under said coating? Should I polish them with an acid or something? Is there something someone would recommend to keep the material from oxidizing under a sealant? I'd really hate to have to pop them out in a year/five/ten/twenty just to redo this...


Thanks,
- CK

mirror coat

No, I don't think your coins will oxidize under this finish as it would be sealed from the atmosphere.  I'd use a two part structural epoxy.


T-88 epoxy

Anything a bit less fancy? My Romy was a budget build; She was screwed together, bent with the poor man's jig, rails were tack-welded in, receiver was finished with cold blue and flat black spraypaint. The woodwork was done with some medium walnut stain I had kicking around from my drum set refinishing and some polyurethane sealant from some other project back a billion years ago. Dipping some 40-dollar mirror finish stuff might look, shall we say, out of place... ;)

Thanks, though! If push comes to shove, I'll just order some of this stuff... :)


- CK

Another option is to just do what people have done with inlays in rifles for hundreds of years:
Leave them uncoated and when they start to dull, just use a little metal polish or a jeweler's polish cloth to shine them back up.

This eliminates the entire problem of having to try to strip off a coating after it wears and the coins start to tarnish anyway.

A jeweler's polish cloth is a double sided cloth.  One side is impregnated with red rouge, the other is used to wipe it clean and shiny.
You can buy them online.

Or, let the coppery metal take a patina over the years to match the military function (low gloss) of the rifle. I guess you're going to use a Forstner bit of the right diameter to recess the coins? Hope you get a match. Kind of hard to do without one. Here's a tip: coat the raw wood surfaces with Super Glue right before applying the coins. Let it soak in and set for a few minutes, then mix clear epoxy and set the coins. The epoxy will give you a few minutes to get the coins oriented like you want them.
With normal handling of the gun, you'll find that the coins never really get black or green, just a dull brown patina with shiny highlights.