SKS stock refinishing tips

Northmen

Northmen

Regular
EE Expired
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I just ordered an unissued sks (I know I overpayed).
My plan is to completely refinish the stock. I have been researching different methods, and I'm not certain which is best. Preferably I'd like a reddish cherry hue to the stock. So I was thinking a precoat sealer, the wood stain followed by a satin clear coat. Many sites though recommended an oil like boiled linseed. Will both work equally well?
Thank you!
 
It's your rifle , but if you refinish your unissued rifle the value will be reduced to a a refurbished one at least. That being said an idea might be to buy another unused stock to refinish. I f it's a laminate stock or wood stock I have had great results with fx wood dyes for the coloring part followed by shellac sealer topped with marine varnish. It really makes the wood pop if that's what look you are going for. I started a thread a few years ago w ish spme laminate ones I redid. https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1354442-Who-wore-it-best
 
I know the value will go down by refinishing it, but I have another sks. I'm off for a bit and want a project so I don't lose my mind. Thanks!
 
Precoat sealer? Why would you seal it before you stain it, that sounds backwards. I’d strip it and prep it, stain and then either oil or varnish. Satin or semi gloss, I’ve refinished on but it came heavily sanded from the refurb stage so I’d say it’s value was the lowest it would ever be lol. Let me see if I can find the thread on it, I used amber shellac and kept it as close to the handguard as possible.
 
Butcherbill said:
Precoat sealer? Why would you seal it before you stain it, that sounds backwards. I’d strip it and prep it, stain and then either oil or varnish. Satin or semi gloss, I’ve refinished on but it came heavily sanded from the refurb stage so I’d say it’s value was the lowest it would ever be lol. Let me see if I can find the thread on it, I used amber shellac and kept it as close to the handguard as possible.
Click to expand...

My mistake I meant pre-stain treatment. Thanks for the link
 
Ive done 30+ sks stocks. no 2 were the same. The wood varies so much.

some are drenched in oil....some are dry as the Sahara desert and cracked.
some of the wood is Chewy
some soak up the stain really well.....some wont take it.
some cant even be sanded they are so full of cosmoline.
a few I did had been near fire.
some have "hidden Repairs" that show up after sanding.
some are twisted.
There is NO Definite answer. Depends what you have to work with.
They are made out of all sorts of different wood.

PS, the cosmoline,,,over time WILL change the Color of the stain you put on.
 
Last edited:
Northmen said:
My mistake I meant pre-stain treatment. Thanks for the link
Click to expand...

Ah gotcha, have at er man. I’d like to strip and stain a laminate version, I’ve played around with staining cabinet grade plywood on art pieces and the routed end grain of the plys always take on an interesting colour and look once things are oiled or clear coated and buffed.
 
Head to Home Depot get yourself some

Klean-Strip Gel paint remover. Works very well, usually two application and you're down to a nice clean stock.

JWy6aAn.jpg


Decide what type of finish you want to have.

If the colour of the stock is good, you just need to seal it.

Here's what I've found.

Tru-oil is Very high Gloss

Myu2CBa.jpg
SGT8PEG.jpg
not mine.

Tung oil is next Gloss

pagxFaH.jpg
giK8EUX.jpg


Antique Oil is Semi Gloss

kcPznIz.jpg
bRJ9GIY.jpg


Wipe-On Poly is next and adds some uv protection.
Haven't tried it.

JCHntRq.jpg


Boiled Lin Seed Oil (BLO) is Satan but could have problems with it drying...read up.

r9usuhL.jpg
lworyTH.jpg


Lot of guys use a combinations.

Myself for milsurp I like 50 BLO/50 Antique Oil

DcxpMnR.jpg
 
Last edited:
With a heat gun, stripper and sanding I am hopeful that I'll remove a solid amount of cosmoline . The rifle will be a shooter for me, a well taken care of one though. So I'm not overly concerned about it losing value
 
The finish on the Sks stock is shellac it removes very easily with denatured alcohol.
Just wipe it off with a soaked rag

I cleaned mine off and then re applied a shellac, looks awesome and if you mess up applying it just wipe it off again
 
I refinished my Chinese SKS stock and while it was relatively simple it just took some time. Depending on the condition you receive it i.e. packed in cosmoline or not you kay want to clean it off to make the rest of the process less messy. After that that I recommend using the "Klean Strip" from the above as it is indeed the best, alternatively "EZ-Strip" from home depot works well as well.

After the top layer has been removed you can decide if you want to re stain or not. The best way to do this is to get the stock down to bare wood. Again, it really depends on the rifle but my stock was very beat up with and quite "dirty." As such, I hit it with "Krud Kutter" and scrubbed it down several times. Additionally, since my stock wasn't laminate I went a step further to get it as bare as possible using heat. Since you have done cabinets, you probably know better than me if this would work on laminate or not but I'll include it nevertheless to get a better sense of the entire process. This involved heating it up in an open oven with the lowest temperature to get the rest of remaining oils and crud to seep out of the stock. Alternatively, you can place it in a black plastic bag out in the sun on a hot and this too is surprisingly effective. After all this the bare wood came out to a sandy blonde colour as happens with Chinese SKS stocks.

Once you have the stock down to bare wood it is just a matter of choosing the stain you want for your rifle and applying the finishing layers. You can go straight with boiled linseed oil or change up the colour if you so choose. As such, you can obviously choose any colour that you fancy or go more in line with a burgundy or mahogany as in soviet sks rifles. I used minnwax pre stain conditioner and their wood stain (non water based) because that was both what I had readily at hand and seen recommended in another forum. Once the pre stain and staining process was done i decided to go with the "Birchwood Casey Tru oil" as after looking into it, that seemed to be the best combination of easiest to apply and solid finish. Seen posts where people recommend 10 layers or more but i ended up doing 6 as after 4 layers i was already getting the finish I wanted. In the ended it came out better than expected given the simplicity of it.

I don't know how helpful this wall of text was but hopefully it gives you a jumping off point or at the very least some ideas.
 
Stay away from sanding...if you can help it...
If it's got some good dents you could try the wet towel and hot iron trick.
You'd be amazed !!!
 
Went to home depot and bought all the supplies, just have to wait for the rifle to arrive now. Thanks for the advice!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom