Earlier this year a friend of mine bought a Chinese SKS and the stock had some "issues". Most notable was some strange colouring on the right side where it looked like someone took a red sharpie to it. Under that was some brick red coloured filler attempting to fill a lot of deep gouges in the stock. Other parts of the stock were typical.
"Typical" area:
Sample of the discoloured areas I mentioned. Also, the colour of the upper handguard was very different from the main stock.
After seeing this, my friend wanted a dark coloured stock and set about trying to paint it black. Due to the wood soaking up maybe 100 gallons of cosmoline
the paint wasn't sticking. So he gave me the mess to deal with. What are friends for if not to clean up a mess?
When I finished removing as much cosmoline as I could and removed that filler in all the gouges (then some minor stock repairs like fixing a crack), I decided to have a little fun. The stock "spoke" to me and said it was a battle-weary rifle that has been through a lot. This character needed to show through and here is the final result, keeping in mind my friend wanted a dark coloured stock. A few different colours of stains and about 8 coats of tinted tung oil were used to create the final result. Then it was rubbed out with #0000 steel wool.
A quick pic my friend took of the completed rifle:
More detail: Playing with colouring the buttstock.
No more brick red coloured, filled in gouges. Partially filled in, edges sanded smooth and black coloured gouges replace the originals.
The upper handguard colour fits much better now.
This refinish job might last my friend a few months before he paints it black. At least the paint will stick to the stock now.
"Typical" area:
Sample of the discoloured areas I mentioned. Also, the colour of the upper handguard was very different from the main stock.
After seeing this, my friend wanted a dark coloured stock and set about trying to paint it black. Due to the wood soaking up maybe 100 gallons of cosmoline
the paint wasn't sticking. So he gave me the mess to deal with. What are friends for if not to clean up a mess? When I finished removing as much cosmoline as I could and removed that filler in all the gouges (then some minor stock repairs like fixing a crack), I decided to have a little fun. The stock "spoke" to me and said it was a battle-weary rifle that has been through a lot. This character needed to show through and here is the final result, keeping in mind my friend wanted a dark coloured stock. A few different colours of stains and about 8 coats of tinted tung oil were used to create the final result. Then it was rubbed out with #0000 steel wool.
A quick pic my friend took of the completed rifle:
More detail: Playing with colouring the buttstock.
No more brick red coloured, filled in gouges. Partially filled in, edges sanded smooth and black coloured gouges replace the originals.
The upper handguard colour fits much better now.
This refinish job might last my friend a few months before he paints it black. At least the paint will stick to the stock now.
