Collecting and Shooting the Military Surplus Rifle - Strengthening the Chinese SKS Stock

Camo Pattern Finish

Contributed by Terry Walters

This color scheme is my "home area" pattern, for hunting in an area of large beech and tulip poplar trees.

I degrease everything, then rough-up the surfaces with #320 grit, wipe with solvent.

Preheat the metal parts to around 200, the stock only to about 150 or so.

Prime with Krylon flat primer, allow to dry over a heat source

Draw the patterns on thin cardboard and cut out with a razor knife paint the patterns with Krylon Camo Flat Paint, except the leaf pattern, which is regular Krylon Allow the paint to dry in a warm place overnight.

Warm the parts with a hairdryer or heat gun.

Apply Krylon Matte Clear, dry in a warm area.

The resulting finish is very durable and the wear is normally confined to the clear finish, which can easily be touched up.

Here is a pic with my freehand woodland type finish, on an SKS and a M44/ pseudo scout.

Tip for cleaning cosmoline off of the rifle stock:

Contributed by Ryan B

Applying a liberal amount of paint thinner with a brush to the stock will do a great job at removing the cosmoline. It is riskier, since if left on too long will corrode the stock, but it does the trick. After applying a few coats, allow it to dry (it should be a light brown color), then massage in some boiled linseed oil to preserve the stock and prevent it from cracking. After several coats, the stock will look dark and shiny, and should be protected from cracking and will also be somewhat waterproof.

Commercial Lacquer Finish

Contributed by Len Olson

CAB is a commercial grade Sherwin Williams product. It is applied via spray only, without thinning of any kind. The product comes in three levels of sheen. It is designed to produce old world "hand rubbed" results, low, medium and high. I prefer the medium. If you're interested, here are the steps I follow for "refinishing" a piece:

1) Remove the old finish via mineral spirits, thinner and/or sanding, usually a combination of all three along with implements of destruction such as tough bristle brushes, dental picks, etc. I do not use strippers anymore at all. The only good ones are caustic and messy. In addition, they darken the wood. So you have to follow a stripper with a dip, or wash, in oxalic acid to lighten it back up and neutralize the ph in the wood.

2) For refinishing projects like these two rifles, I then wash the stock in lukewarm water with a light soap and scrub the surface with a bristle brush, (a 3m pad or greenie can be used with tight grained wood).

3) Rinse the stock in cold water and air dry under a fan.

4) Sand via ROS sander, then block (or sponge), and end with hand sanding. I usually go down to 220. For the rifles, I lightly used 120 on the ROS, then went to 150 sponge, then 150 hand, and completed the sanding via 220 hand.

5) Thoroughly blow the piece down with air.

6) Wipe the piece down with a lightly water dampened t-shirt rag. Air dry.

7) Wipe the stock down with a t-shirt rag that is very lightly doused with lacquer thinner. Air dry.

8) Just prior to shooting lacquer, blow the piece down with air.

9) Wipe the piece down with a lightly water dampened t-shirt rag. Wait 2-3 minutes to let the water vapor dry, clearly dependent upon geography. Here, in NM, this is not a problem.

10) Then wipe the piece completely with a "tack-rag".

11) Shoot lacquer, allow for flash, and wait approx 20 min.

12) Lightly rub, or wipe might be a better term, the piece with #0000 steel wool,

13) then, wipe down with another t-shirt rag with some distilled water, again not very damp at all. wait a couple of minutes.

14) (this next step is called "knocking down" or "the rub" depending on your part of the country). This is not absolutely necessary with the CAB, but with some lacquers it is a basic requirement. It provides incredible results when done well. Ok, you again take the t-shirt with the thinner on it, lightly damp and almost moist, and you make straight passes with the grain from end to end with light pressure. Visualize melting the lacquer, if that makes any sense at all. Too much lacquer thinner, or too much pressure, and your spray coat is blown to hell.

Repeat steps 8 through 14 for at least two maybe three coats.

Obviously, you would not utilize the steel wool until after the first coat is shot. Finally, I do not recommend steps 13 and 14 prior to shooting the last coat of lacquer. Total coats, 4-5. Actual hands on time from cleaning through buffing is about 3 hours, spread over maybe 5-6 hours.

15) Allow the piece to rest for 24 hours, then buff the piece using a 1:4 mix of bees-wax to pure (clear) mineral oil. You melt the bees-wax into the oil on very low heat, don't come even close to boiling it. The buffing really should be done with a buffer pad attached to a ROS sander set for the lowest speed possible.

Tiger Stripes

Contributed by Bob Martin

The stock (all the Wood) was really ugly, dirt, scratches, looked like some one had painted with a whisk broom some kind of poly or other finish. Since I've cleaned up the metal, the stock has to be better looking. It took three applications of the "OVEN CLEANER" trick and scrubbing with a stiff fiber brush to get rid of all the junk. After drying---slowly---the wood looked good, very few dings---which I filled in with a dark wood putty mixed with some of the WET dust/scrapings from the stock---matched pretty good when dry. Gave all the wood a light sanding with 200 grit sandpaper and 4 XXXX steel wool. Wiped the wood down with Mineral Spirits (paint thinner) to give me a better idea how it would look after I refinish the wood, looked great.

I have hand rubbed/applied, with my fingers, about six (six) coats of Birchwood Casey TRU-OIL Gun Stock Finish. Buffing each coat (when dry) with 4 XXXX steel wool to get rid of the sheen/glossy look. I have used Tung oil, Danish oil, Poly and other finishes in the past---but seem to come back to the TRU-OIL for most applications---turns out good and easy to use. I have and old stock that I removed from a Enfield several years ago---every time I do a stock refinish job I put a coat or two on it, must have 50 coats---buff each one down with the steel wool---it has a deep finish that you can see thru, reminds me of a 1941 Ford with 15 coats of lacquer. Now time to put it all back together, will send a picture when finished. (If Interested---Delete is easy to hit)

A hint for kind of out of the way something to do on stocks (PROBABLY NOT NEW) I take a "Propane Torch" BERNZ O MATIC, or what ever--and make burn stripes opposite to the length of the stock, like a Tiger or Zebra. I have a 1800 something Black Powder double Barrel shotgun that has REAL stock with this grain pattern. After light sanding and finish it looks good. Some I've made Camouflage patterns, do what you want----try it on a old board first.

Getting out Dents and Dings w/Steam

Author Unknown

You were informed correctly that a steam iron will do the job of raising dings and dents, A regular iron and a wet cloth will do the job more quickly and with more control. A clean piece of flannel or a well washed diaper soaked and wrung out placed over the dent on a stripped stock will come up after a few judicious application of moisture and heat. A plumbers soldering iron and a small hobby type soldering iron does nicely for those little dings in hard to reach places. For those leftover stains in the stripped stock, try Carbon Tet and or Xylol solvents. Wet a shop towel with the solvent and apply to wood in a well ventilated place. Lifts the stain every time if petrol based. To refinish tung oil is nice but Linspeed is better if you wish to spend the time. I did this with a rather rough 94 Swedish Carbine stock with excellent results. The finish brought out the amazingly beautiful grain in the walnut stock w/o looking too glossy.Since it is a very low number Mauser Werke piece I wanted it to look original as parts of the metal showed its age.

Removing Excess Oil from a Mil-Surp Stock

Contributed by David Burritt

Just a note to comment on refinishing surplus stock - heat the wood over an electric element to boil the excess oil out. Just keep heating and wiping the oil up...

Contributed by Mark Ellis

I read your comments on refinishing the military surplus stock and concur on the use of oven cleaner. Care must be taken to neutralize it afterwards as it will continue to eat away at the wood. Rinse with water is imperative. This is OK as you want to raise the grain with damp rags prior to sanding anyway. As a cabinet maker, I'd suggest that analine dyes are perfect for any of the hard, dense woods used for military stocks. They come in powder form and can be dissolved in either boiling hot water or denatured alcohol. This stain WILL stain any wood except for some of the tropical exotics that have a lot of natural oil. They will also do it quite evenly, even in lighter colors (the stain will also stain anything else it touches, like skin).

Hardening the Chinese SKS Stock

Contributed by: Darren Locke

Most Chinese SKS stocks are made from some form of very soft sapwood & come painted with a horrific looking orange varnish. The wood is of such quality that you can gouge it with your thumbnail.

I purchased a Chinese SKS last winter. I had heard that, due to the ban on importation, these Chinese rifles were very hard to find. I did not have to look very hard, though, as there was one for a very reasonable price at my local pawnshop.

The rifle itself is remarkably nice. It is a paratrooper model and had the compulsory folding spike bayonet (the lug for which was subsequently ground off). I was given free 5-round and 30-round detachable magazines, and a sling, as well. The machine work on the steel was done quite professionally and there were no burrs, etc. I have heard that you can actually cut yourself by handling some Chinese SKS'.

The stock, on the other hand, left a bit to be desired. It was not damaged, but my original intent was to install an aftermarket stock, so I took the rifle apart and tossed the original stock in the corner. I subsequently installed an ATI Ultralight stock and am very happy with the results.

As part of my rebuild, I had to attempt to remove the gas tube cover. As anyone who has ever tried to drive one of those pins knows, it is a miserable experience. After reviewing the ATI Fiberforce stock installation (SKS) on Surplusrifle.com, I decided to induct someone to hold the gas tube assembly while I beat hell out of the pin. Too much pressure was exerted and the wooden handguard cracked in two right down the middle. As the pin had not even budged, I decided to minimize damage by epoxying the wooden handguard back together. My intent was to paint it to match the ATI stock (i.e. semi-gloss black). First, though, I wanted to toughen up the wood so it could take a few knocks without damage. The following explains how I "hardened" the sapwood on the handguard and, consequently, on the original stock itself.

First, however, I wouldn't generally recommend this procedure for a Russian, Albanian, or Yugoslavian SKS, because you will be killing the collector value. The Russians and Albanians have good hardwood stocks, and I believe the Yugo stock is made from beech, which is one of the harder softwoods. This procedure is for a stock that will be painted.

The first step is to remove the orange varnish. While there are chemicals that will remove polyurethane and varnish (as well as layers of skin), you can do the job quite easily with sandpaper. I experimented with some 60-grit paper and found that you could effectively remove all of the varnish in less than a half hour. However, the 60-grit removes a lot of wood as well, especially on the Chinese sapwood stock. If you start with 100 or 120 grit paper, you will use more elbow grease and time, but you will not gouge up the wood as much. Of course, you want to continue sanding until the stock is varnish free and smooth. Work your way up to 220 grit.

If your stock has dings and dents, now is the time to steam and/or fill them. As the stock will be painted, you can use your favorite filler. I personally like Elmer's brand wood filler. It comes in different weights and is water soluble. This will be important in later steps. Moreover, it is readily available and cheap.

Now on to strengthening the wood. At this point you should have your stock well sanded and smooth. Don't use any sandpaper grit finer than 220 at this stage, because you want a slightly rough surface.

The next step is to paint on a coat of epoxy. There are many different brands of epoxy out there, and you want quality stuff. If you have a local hobby shop, Hobby Poxy makes a really good product that is intended for uses such as this. If you have to get hardware store epoxy, get the expensive stuff that comes in sizeable bottles. It is very important that you do not use 5 or 30 minute types of epoxy. You want the stuff that takes a full 24 hours to cure. If you find some that takes longer than 24 hours, get that.

The idea is to paint a coat of epoxy on the outside of the stock. That is, you don't need to paint the barrel channel or inside action areas, just the parts you will see after the rifle is reassembled. You will need to work quickly to do this in one shot, but it can be done in stages if you wish. You will need to thin the epoxy and apply it. You can purchase "epoxy brushes" that are metal tubes with black brushes (these are also used for fluxing when soldering), or you can make some plastic squeegees to spread the epoxy.

Epoxy paints better when thinned. The best way to thin epoxy is to warm it up BEFORE mixing it. You don't want to cook it, but heat it. I do this by immersing the separate bottles of resin and hardener in hot tap water for half an hour or so. One could also rig up an 'oven' with a coffee can and light bulb. The trick is to warm the epoxy so that it spreads thinly and easily. The problem is that by warming epoxy, you also speed up the curing process.

Once your epoxy is warmed up you want to mix a big enough batch to do the job, then get busy painting or squeegee'ing. Get the stock painted as thin as you can. Work as fast as you can. You really don't have to sweat it too much. If you get globs or an uneven finish, you can fix that later. You will simply have to do more work.

Once the exposed areas of the stock are covered, hang it up and let it cure for 2 or 3 days.

After the epoxy has cured, sand away with 220 grit until it is smooth as can be. Be careful not to sand off your epoxy. If you do, mix up a little bit and redo the area in question. You might note that the epoxy tends to grip the paper a bit at first, but the intense heat generated by sanding will fully harden the epoxy as well as give you a smoother finish.

At this point, your stock should have a rock-hard shell. However, as epoxy generally goes on uneven no matter how careful you are and is generally a pain to sand, you can go a step further for a glass-smooth finish.

Get out your Elmer's filler and mix some with a little bit of water to make a "filler paint." You can then paint this over your epoxy (a foam brush works well). After the filler cures, sand it smooth. This process may take several coats, but the gist is to fill in the hills and valleys in the epoxy. I final sanded with 400 grit for a glass-smooth finish.

Now you have a smooth, protected stock for your Chinese SKS. You can paint your stock however you wish. I sprayed on a couple coats of gray sandable primer and smoothed that down with 600-grit. I followed that by spraying on 3 coats of gloss black Krylon. I finished the job with 3 coats of Krylon semi-gloss clearcoat. I would imagine that you could do a real cool jungle or desert camo job with an airbrush.

FYI, after some heavy duty firing sessions I have come to the conclusion that the epoxy (that I painted the handguard on my Chinese SKS with to toughen it up) will not melt off. The paint will not be-bond from the epoxy either. HOWEVER, some paint smudged off when I got Break free on it & grabbed the handguard (with my thumb). Still, the paint I used on that handguard was what I had laying around, a $1 can of Wal Mart "Color center" paint. I would imagine there are paints out there that are impervious to CLR & other chemicals that may get on a firearm finish. The epoxy skin itself is doing an admirable job. The guy that bought the epoxy-skinned stock hasn't done anything to it yet. That has Rust Oleum on it. If I can talk him into abusing it with bore cleaner, CLP, or gun oil, I will advise as to the results. My current thought is that automotive paint would be just the ticket. One would probably have to go to a paint dealer if they wanted a flat or semi-gloss finish, as I imagine that all of the store-shelf auto paints are gloss finish & you can't add a flattening agent to the spray can.