Advice on Albanian SKS stock

[daytonlawvol]

I have an SKS that I didn't realize a year back was actually an all matching Albanian. The guy I bought it from had painted red the stock with camo spray paint.....I know. He didn't realize it was Albanian and probably wouldn't have cared anyway. Got it for a phenomenal price.

I have the stock stripped down from the damn camo paint and am trying to figure out what to do with it at this point. Orange/yellow shellac....stain...? It will never be as issued, but want to put it back to as classy and original as I can.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[alleycat]

I've had luck with a 50/50 mix of minwax red mahogany (several thin layers, steel wool between each one) and yellow pecan stain, then cover with clear shellac or BLO. If you like the yellow color, then use 75% yellow and 25% red mahogany

 

[daytonlawvol]

I'm assuming that's close to Albanian SKS finish?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[alleycat]

I'm assuming that's close to Albanian SKS finish?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pretty close to me but its hard for me to match exactly. Russian stocks, oh yeah, but that amber-ish tint is tricky

 

[Mark IV]

It sounds like alleycat knows what he's talking about, but if you really want to get nitpicky over getting close to the original look (and I didn't mean that to sound critical) , then I'd also ask the guys on both SKS forums (actually, I'd go with SKS-files, they're some cool helpful guys, there's a lot of serious ****-heads on the other SKS forum).
I've done a bunch of AK refins, but never any SKS's, or I'd weigh in, too.
P.S. steel wool can leave metal fibers in the wood. I used to use it, but eventually followed advice from serious gun and guitar refinishers to go with the big white (finest) Scotch-brite pads. Same level of abrasion,but cleaner.