what finish do you like on the wood stock? I have tried trueoil, tungoil and polyeurathane. so far the poly has the most attractive finish but I am not sure of its durability...

I use polyurethane and it is by far the most hard, durable, chemical resistant and attractive finish in my opinion. True oil or tung oil don't come even close in terms of durability and chemical resistance.

It's fast drying and very easy to apply in aersol form, which provides a nice, even finish without the brush strokes that you get with rub on finishes.

The downside is that once it does gets scratched or worn you'll have to strip off the finish or sand it and redo it, where as with tung or true oil all you need is to rub on a new coat and it's like a brand new finish again.

Despite that, I still go with polyurethane for most of my wood finishes.  They're also available in satin clear, semi gloss or gloss, quite convenient.

Here's an M1 that I refinished in polyurethane satin clear:


I would vouch for it's durability, it still looks this way till this day.

I presume that you want to refinish some AK wood?

WOW!!! That M1 is a beauty!!!!!!!!!!!!!

+1 on the spray poly, I refinished a WASR with it and it came out super.

Please ignore the red dot, it's long gone, as well as the thirty bucks I wasted on it.

I stripped by sanding, then used Minwax walnut stain, several coats.



Then I sprayed about 10 coats of polyurethane down.





I smoke the handguards, treat it rough, and just wipe it down with Remoil during regular field strip and cleaning. It has held up for about four years of regular use and I think it works fine.

I also did a rack grade Greek return Garand with VERY rough wood like this and it turned out as good as that wood looked in 50 years....however, not nearly as nice as Darkest2000 did with his. THAT one looks great!!

Dang, ten coats, and I thought I was being anal for doing 5...

Here's a FAL that I refinished with Minwax stain and 5 coats of spray on satin poly:


Here's an AK stock set that I refinished with about 4 coats of satin poly:


The key for a nice smooth, even finish is to do multiple coats (3 or more) let completely dry (about 3 days), then sand the surface with a 400~600 grit sanpaper, and finish off with another coat or two.