I'd like to refinish my Polish laminate furniture to get an original Russian red color.  I found a pistol grip, (in pic), but need to redo the stock and handguards.  It's a pretty close match right now, but the stock and HGs are more brown than the pic reveals.  Any advice on a particular stain?  

Thanks fellas.

Bud

i dont know if you've seen this and im not sure if it's what you're looking for but there's a recipe for a delicious red stain in the references forum.

Red stains

mmmm

I thought I saw that reference on here some time ago.  Thanks!

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. I  lightly buffed the final coat with the steel wool to knock down the gloss a bit.

Well,  a common mistake when people try to repro Russian finish is that it comes out too red.. Very few Russian stock sets are a noticable red. Especially AKM era stuff, which is normally more of a golden honey brown.

i agree with stottman
altho i still like the red better :)

you can try some iodine (what i used here )

BOS-

I think your Polish furniture looks great as is.  Just put some boiled linseed oil on it occasionally and call it good.

Quoted: BOS- I think your Polish furniture looks great as is.  Just put some boiled linseed oil on it occasionally and call it good.

Thank you, "scromer."  Maybe I should leave well-enough alone.

Somehow it never looks the same but close enough for a hell of a lot less than the real thing.

Quoted: Somehow it never looks the same but close enough for a hell of a lot less than the real thing.

I dont know, I get it cheap enough..

is there a way to put more red into your furniture gradually, like enough to notice a difference but not a HUGE difference? i'd like to redden (is that a word?) my furniture a bit more but i'm afraid that i'd end up stuck with something i'm not happy with. would it work if i just rubbed small amounts of dye onto the furniture? anyway this is what i would be starting with.

Quoted: is there a way to put more red into your furniture gradually, like enough to notice a difference but not a HUGE difference? i'd like to redden (is that a word?) my furniture a bit more but i'm afraid that i'd end up stuck with something i'm not happy with. would it work if i just rubbed small amounts of dye onto the furniture? anyway this is what i would be starting with. i54.photobucket.com/albums/g104/nifepartie/joshAK2.jpg

Rocko,

Not to sound like a "parrot" but that furniture looks great the way it is!