Wood AK furniture re-finish help

[cmgee67]

I have never refinished any stocks or hand guards and on my newest build which is a Romanian AK I am planning on re finishing the stock abd handguard. What is the process I need to go through? I know i need to sand it but that's about all I know. Any help would be greatly appreciated

[WTR]

Strip it, sand it, open up the grain with a rag damp with water, rub stock with tung oil, rub it with 0000 steel wool.....do the last two steps multiple times ......wipe it down with a clean rag.

[Weg]

I've done one once, a M14 stock, basically the same as WTR said, but I used Linseed oil and put it on as hot as I could stand. I think I did it multiple times, it really brings out the color and grain of the wood. I've since sold the gun or I would post a picture.

[n5wmk]

Agree with the multiple applications of the finish. A word of caution, linseed oil, tung oil, Danish oil among others are the oils very prone to spontaneous combustion if you leave your rags laying around. A good friend near Crawford almost lost his really nice man cave from linseed oil soaked rags in a plastic garbage can. Either put them in a flame proof metal can or wash them thoroughly with soap and water.

[karder]

I refinished the furniture on my AK about 10 years ago. My main goal was to protect the wood from the elements as it is a working, bang around the truck type gun, so I kept it very simple. I removed all the furniture, sanded off the old finish to the bare wood and applied a stain that I liked with a rag. After it was fully dry, I applied a couple of polyurethane coats to protect the wood from the elements. It worked out well for what I was looking for. The method suggested by WTR will yield better results than my down and dirty method.