AK Furniture Swap Walkthrough. Bye Bye Plastic

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  • Brent

    #2ALivesMatter
    Nov 22, 2013
    2,656
    Amongst the Deplorables, SC.
    I came into possession of an Arsenal SLR 95 not too long ago. It was blacked out and fine. But I thought it could be better, different, mine. Enter, the rifle:

    32769add39106e0b374be11fa5ad67b5.jpg


    I decided I would get a nice Ironwood Designs stock set. However, their pre-finished sets were out of stock for this model. The project began.

    I wanted to do a 100% shellac finishing and decided, the hell with it, I’ll make my own.

    2976716741137326288e715fa7fac426.jpg



    2.5# of this guy and a gallon of denatured alcohol will make my base, amber shellac.

    b9ee0b9b94df553ebb8bed0610d6444f.jpg


    This 2.5# cut yielded 5 quarts of pure amber shellac. I kept 1 qt amber and progressively stepped up a percentage of “Reddish Brown” Transtint to each quart. I will refer to them in percentages. 0 being amber, whole meaning 1 ounce of Transtint for a quart.

    ccc8db70c10a536b579af6e6721c11dc.jpg


    Here is the bare wood with two coats of plain amber.

    ea604b9a730da8175f652a74437feca0.jpg


    In this picture, you see the shade change as I added a coat of quarter value and a coat of half value. Buffing with 0000 steel wool in between.

    e864f86cabd3482254400689c6896702.jpg


    One more coat of half value and two coats of three quarter here. Starting to look a little better.

    e2b7c3f47f3c5ee35210797188141c3a.jpg


    Three coats of whole value tinted shellac and a realization: I am going to keep my ultimak up top and abandon the top fore end wood. In order to do this, I had to inlet the sides of the bottom wood, and remove a fair amount of stock to accommodate the mounting brackets that tie in with the ultimak gas / rail system.

    3445a4b807a8e793637c9c919827f2d1.jpg


    This is the difference of one versus three coats of full value tint. Shellac is an awesome layering finish.

    All of these previous pictures were taken with a cell phone. It’s only right that the final product be done with a real camera.

    ae11b695711bffafc60b62346f14851e.jpg


    And that’s it. I now have roughly the same amount of shellac as I began with. A little bit goes a long long way. All in all, it was a great project. The quality of the furniture is fantastic. I highly recommend Ironwood Designs if you’re in the mood for some organic material to replace your injection molded plastic. Give the unfinished product a try. It’s a great project.



    It should be mentioned that this is my first time finishing any sort or stock, in this case, an AKM. Don’t be nervous. Read some info online and go for it.

    -Brent


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    firemn260

    Active Member
    Sep 15, 2015
    353
    Harford County
    Very nice work. Looks great. I have a old mak 90 that had the thumbhole stock on it. I changed it to a synthetic dragonov style stock and forearm. I would like to put traditional wood back on it but I’m not sure it it will work with the ak stock and grip.

    It’s a great shooter for being a Chinese copy but does not like hollow points.
     

    Brent

    #2ALivesMatter
    Nov 22, 2013
    2,656
    Amongst the Deplorables, SC.
    Very nice work. Looks great. I have a old mak 90 that had the thumbhole stock on it. I changed it to a synthetic dragonov style stock and forearm. I would like to put traditional wood back on it but I’m not sure it it will work with the ak stock and grip.

    It’s a great shooter for being a Chinese copy but does not like hollow points.


    If you want wood, Ironwood Designs has a pattern for the Mak90’s!! I’d stay get over to the website and shoot Matt an email. He’s good about getting back with you and answering any questions!


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    John from MD

    American Patriot
    MDS Supporter
    May 12, 2005
    22,641
    Socialist State of Maryland
    Nice job! I can see you are also a motor head. I used to race at Kinston in the mid '70's.

    Loved NC, but hated the part about having to belong to a "Club" to drink and we had to bring our own brown bag liquor. :sad20:
     

    Brent

    #2ALivesMatter
    Nov 22, 2013
    2,656
    Amongst the Deplorables, SC.
    Nice job! I can see you are also a motor head. I used to race at Kinston in the mid '70's.

    Loved NC, but hated the part about having to belong to a "Club" to drink and we had to bring our own brown bag liquor. :sad20:


    Haha! Memberships are so insane! NC is a great place at least now in 2020! You should come back!


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    Feb 28, 2013
    28,953
    Thanks! I’m sure it turned out great as well!


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

    Looks like some Russky plowboy did it....:lol2:

    No biggie. Adds a lil character Id say :)
     

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