Recently a friend of mine sold me his SKS. It's a 1954 Ruskie Tula. He let me have it for $100, along with around 550 rounds of milsurp ammo with striper clips for another $120. Since there was no taxes, shipping, etc, it was a good opportunity to take on an SKS project.
My friend had worn the original finish off his SKS, and decided to spray bomb the furniture with a green Krylon paint. He had also painted his favorite online gaming logo onto the stock.
I wanted to refinish the SKS into something with a little more classic look, but using the cheap cost of the rifle to offset a few 'tweaks', including a Choate tap & drill scope mount, and an illuminated tactical scope. I'm not big on the 'tacticool' plastic stocks, etc. I like the look & feel of the wood, but wanted to also give it a real 'red rifle' look, going for a red wood stain.
The first thing I did was strip down the rifle to its furniture, and used 'Circa 1850' to strip the old paint off. I can't describe how easily the paint literally came off the wood. The second the circa mixture hit the paint, it bubbled up and instantly turned into paint goo, which easily wiped off. The only thing that made the striping process a bit of a challenge was the sheer amount of paint my friend had put on the stock.
After the stock was striped, I decided to sand it down with 220 grain sandpaper, which really brought out the fresh wood underneath, with lots of grain. The birch stock was very yellow. I took the opportunity to fix up a few of the many knicks and gouges in the stock, by filling them in with filler and epoxy, then sanding it down. My goal wasn't to try to make those areas blend in perfectly, but just to knock their rough appearance down a bit. I then stained the stock with my own mix of cherry wood stain & red paint. The final finish was done with Tru-Oil which gives the stock a nice hard finish that won't yellow with age. There's a finishing compound that I could use to make the stock's finish more of a matte finish, instead of the gloss look. But I haven't decided to use that yet. Next step I'll take on is drilling and tapping the receiver for the scope mount. That will happen next week some time I think.
What do you think of the new finish on the furniture?
Adding some pics showing SKS with Choate mount and scope installed:
My friend had worn the original finish off his SKS, and decided to spray bomb the furniture with a green Krylon paint. He had also painted his favorite online gaming logo onto the stock.
I wanted to refinish the SKS into something with a little more classic look, but using the cheap cost of the rifle to offset a few 'tweaks', including a Choate tap & drill scope mount, and an illuminated tactical scope. I'm not big on the 'tacticool' plastic stocks, etc. I like the look & feel of the wood, but wanted to also give it a real 'red rifle' look, going for a red wood stain.
The first thing I did was strip down the rifle to its furniture, and used 'Circa 1850' to strip the old paint off. I can't describe how easily the paint literally came off the wood. The second the circa mixture hit the paint, it bubbled up and instantly turned into paint goo, which easily wiped off. The only thing that made the striping process a bit of a challenge was the sheer amount of paint my friend had put on the stock.
After the stock was striped, I decided to sand it down with 220 grain sandpaper, which really brought out the fresh wood underneath, with lots of grain. The birch stock was very yellow. I took the opportunity to fix up a few of the many knicks and gouges in the stock, by filling them in with filler and epoxy, then sanding it down. My goal wasn't to try to make those areas blend in perfectly, but just to knock their rough appearance down a bit. I then stained the stock with my own mix of cherry wood stain & red paint. The final finish was done with Tru-Oil which gives the stock a nice hard finish that won't yellow with age. There's a finishing compound that I could use to make the stock's finish more of a matte finish, instead of the gloss look. But I haven't decided to use that yet. Next step I'll take on is drilling and tapping the receiver for the scope mount. That will happen next week some time I think.
What do you think of the new finish on the furniture?
Adding some pics showing SKS with Choate mount and scope installed:
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