Slowly updated SKS wood stock refinishing thread

[jimbo14]

Haven't had much time the past while to work on the stock, but every once in a while I get a few minutes. I spent some time steaming out dents, allowing it to dry and then some sanding to fix some of the flaws that bugged me.

First up, a pic of the basic stuff I used. Due to all the oil in the wood, the sandpaper will load up like crazy. So keep spare sheets. I have a ton of random orbit paper so I used that. A wood block is great for flat surfaces and I used a dowel wrapped in sandpaper to clean up the finger grooves. At first I was thinking of making a jig for my router to clean up the finger grooves but then decided to do it by hand since the wood is so soft.

Sanding materials:

Before pic of finger groove showing wavy edge and annoying dent:

After pic (had to play with lighting to show the shadow line because the grain pattern and height variation on the stock can make it look strange):

Before pic to show uneven surface on large, flat edge of stock and yet another dent:

After pic of alcohol on surface and lighting to show it's now flat:

I still need to fix the bayonet slot and then some fine grit sanding before the finishing process. Slowly, but surely, it's getting there.

 

[The Kurgan]

Haven't had much time the past while to work on the stock, but every once in a while I get a few minutes. I spent some time steaming out dents, allowing it to dry and then some sanding to fix some of the flaws that bugged me.

First up, a pic of the basic stuff I used. Due to all the oil in the wood, the sandpaper will load up like crazy. So keep spare sheets. I have a ton of random orbit paper so I used that. A wood block is great for flat surfaces and I used a dowel wrapped in sandpaper to clean up the finger grooves. At first I was thinking of making a jig for my router to clean up the finger grooves but then decided to do it by hand since the wood is so soft.

Sanding materials:

Before pic of finger groove showing wavy edge and annoying dent:

After pic (had to play with lighting to show the shadow line because the grain pattern and height variation on the stock can make it look strange):

Before pic to show uneven surface on large, flat edge of stock and yet another dent:

After pic of alcohol on surface and lighting to show it's now flat:

I still need to fix the bayonet slot and then some fine grit sanding before the finishing process. Slowly, but surely, it's getting there.

The wood looks great. You won't believe how much better it will look with a good tung oil finish!

 

[Allteeth]

The wet cloth and iron worked great. Nice job. I will be ordering an extra stock to refinish. Thanks for the inspiration, hope mine turns out as good as I am sure yours will.
Allteeth

 

[jimbo14]

Thanks guys.

The wood looks great. You won't believe how much better it will look with a good tung oil finish!

I've already bought the polymerized tung oil and it's waiting patiently to be used.

The wet cloth and iron worked great. Nice job. I will be ordering an extra stock to refinish. Thanks for the inspiration, hope mine turns out as good as I am sure yours will.
Allteeth

Just take your time and it will turn out nice. When it comes to steaming the dents out, you may find the areas you steamed will come out lighter in colour than the untouched areas. This is because you've driven the oil down a bit. When you sand the steamed areas to level the surface, the colour will even out.

This is a perfect rifle to learn stock refinishing techniques on that you can apply to future projects. Don't worry about making mistakes since that's how you learn.

 

[jimbo14]

I finished a job today so before I start the next one, I turned my attention to the bayonet groove. The fella who made this stock had a bad day. Plenty of tearout and it was a mess.

Before (the bayo is hiding some ugliness too):

With the help of a rotary tool, sandpaper and a piece of wood, it's much better. Perfect? No. Good enough for me though.

I rounded over the edges of the groove to help avoid future damage to the edge.

Two things left before the finishing process: one last attempt at trying to eliminate some discolouring from the (old) large dent from the swivel and a final sanding. I'll try to get that done in a few days.

 

[The Kurgan]

Keep up the good work. The pay off is in the final product. Chu-wood has tonnes of character, it just needs a little help.

 

[platnumbob]

Is the chinese bayo actually that squared off on the end, or did you trim it? Ouch...thats a bad way to go.

 

[jimbo14]

Is the chinese bayo actually that squared off on the end, or did you trim it? Ouch...thats a bad way to go.

That's the way it is. Dual purpose stab your enemy and slotted screwdriver.

 

[jimbo14]

Keep up the good work. The pay off is in the final product. Chu-wood has tonnes of character, it just needs a little help.

Thanks. My original plan was to bubba the crap out of this rifle, but then I decided to leave my new stock building for another rifle and just refinish this. Exactly how I'll refinish this has yet to be decided....

 

[jimbo14]

Decisions, decisions....

Not positive on what I'll be doing with refinishing this stock. Of all my rifles, I love the look of my 1941 SVT-40 the most. Not just styling, but the patina on the wood. Part of that is the wood grain itself (in all its blotchy glory), but also by how the colour has changed because it was used - a lot - by the looks of it. All grip points and where the wood was exposed to massive heat from the barrel has changed colour.

Check it out:

Closeup of heat scorching:

...and here:

Colour change at grip points:

My SKS is one of the unissued ones. Poor thing. I've been thinking of simulating wear like on my SVT-40 using dye stains because I really love the look of that. Of course I could wait a long time and generate those colours the old fashioned way.

We'll see....

 

[jimbo14]

All sanding is now complete and it's time to apply the final finish. Still not sure what that will be yet. I'll experiment and get 'er done.

I also made a simple drying stand for the stock and handguard (elevated on dowels). It's always best to figure that out ahead of time.

 

[7mmlefty]

All sanding is now complete and it's time to apply the final finish. Still not sure what that will be yet. I'll experiment and get 'er done.

I also made a simple drying stand for the stock and handguard (elevated on dowels). It's always best to figure that out ahead of time.

Great idea with the stand. Leaning it against something is not the best for a finished stock.

 

[jimbo14]

I started the tung oil process today. I'm using polymerized tung oil (from Lee Valley) to speed up the drying process. I really don't want to wait for the regular tung oil to polymerize on its own.

I tinted the oil slightly red with a commercial "cherry" red brown stain since I prefer a little colour in this stock.

Right now, I have one coat of tung oil on the stock and due to the large amount of oil already in the stock, it didn't soak up very much. The colour is fairly even and I like the look of it so far. I think I might add a little more red for the subsequent coats.

Pic of supplies used. I made a small batch of the red tung oil mixed with a little black oil paint to darken it. I'll use this in specific areas later on.

Sample board of alder. It has the same specific gravity as catalpa ('Chu' wood) so I was hoping it might help with colour choice. Two coats of plain polymerized tung oil on top, and one coat of the red-tinted version on the bottom for comparison.

Stock with one coat of tung oil on it. I love the warm look it has.

Closeup:

Tomorrow night I'll buff it down with some steel wool and put on a second coat.

 

[killer1963daddy]

wow, its lookin real nice! the stock will be worth far more than the rifle! its amazing what a little lovin can do for a diamond in the rough!

 

[Mortified Penguin]

Great to hear! Please post some pics when all the BLO is on. I have a multi-step finishing process planned for mine so it'll still be a while until it's complete. And now with the other projects my wife has added to my list, I'm not sure when it'll be done. For some reason she feels other things are more important than refinishing this rifle. Silly woman.

Heres mine all finished. The stock just needed a little sanding, nothing as thorough as what you did. 7 coats of BLO and it was getting as dark as I wanted.

 

[7mmlefty]

Very nice gents... refinishing the stock is the one thing anyone can do easily, and in short order to improve an already ###y rifle.

 

[jimbo14]

Thanks guys.

Heres mine all finished. The stock just needed a little sanding, nothing as thorough as what you did. 7 coats of BLO and it was getting as dark as I wanted.

Nice job. BLO always gives a nice look to the wood. If the lighting in your pic isn't making it a bit bright, the BLO will "warm up" a bit over time. It's hard to get good pics of a wood finish.

My stock had it's share of abuse, but I think it was delivered that way because the previous owner is very meticulous with his rifles and he never shot this one. Doesn't bug me because this is a fun project.

 

[jimbo14]

I decided to let the first coat of tung oil cure for almost two days because of all the existing oil in the stock. Since I wanted more red in the stock (this is a "red rifle" after all - lol!) I decided to play with stains.

Simple check: wipe some of the red-brown stain on my sample board of two different shades of tung oil. Since the tung oil will have filled up most of the pores in the stock, it won't allow the stock to turn super red. It will be very dark in the untreated wood on the board.

...and here it is.

Close up:

Now I need to let this fully dry before the next step. Once I'm done with the colouring, it'll be back to more tung oil until it's finished.

 

[hunterinthewoods]

I'm liking that red!

 

[7mmlefty]

Perfect... its already looking red..