ak-74 builders

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Originally Posted by CrufflerSteve

It might be worth picking up a Tantal kit now and waiting for the proper barrel. The quality of the Bulgie is really impressive. It is heartbreaking to see the sliced up barrel. The butt stock is a lot light than the front wood and not much of a color match so I suppose I will be breaking out my refinishing dtuff. The muzzle brake is quite a piece of work. Well made and it looks like it does a lot. I haven't seen US made ones so I'll probably stay with it. That means for 922r I'll have to do something else, probably the pistol grip. A shame since it looks unused.

I pushed out the barrel pin and got the barrel out of the trunnion. I got the rear sight pin out in good shape but the right sight is still on tight. Having kits with barrels I've never studied up on that but I'd better start. I degreased all the pieces and got a bunch of penetrating oil on them. It would be great to get the barrel set at the party. This could be a great looking AK. Need to get going on parkerizing.

Steve

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sounds like a good plan for the tantal, as for the bulgy it's nice to hear, i can't wait to see the one i'm trading charger for. as for us made muzzle brakes, k-var carries them and i was thinking cnc warrior makes some as well, either way i know for a fact kvar has them though i can't remember what style they have (half moon, zig zag or later hammer forged type) i think tantal's website has a good comparison on the 3 different styles of 74 brakes.

by the way steve, i now smell like a swedish camp fire haha the pine tar worked great, i mixed a little in a new empty paint can and rubbed it in like BLO i'll probably try rubbing in some more tomorrow then let it sweat out completely. this stock is going to look awesome.

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Originally Posted by jreifsch80

sounds like a good plan for the tantal, as for the bulgy it's nice to hear, i can't wait to see the one i'm trading charger for. as for us made muzzle brakes, k-var carries them and i was thinking cnc warrior makes some as well, either way i know for a fact kvar has them though i can't remember what style they have (half moon, zig zag or later hammer forged type) i think tantal's website has a good comparison on the 3 different styles of 74 brakes.

by the way steve, i now smell like a swedish camp fire haha the pine tar worked great, i mixed a little in a new empty paint can and rubbed it in like BLO i'll probably try rubbing in some more tomorrow then let it sweat out completely. this stock is going to look awesome.

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It also comes down to economics. I needed a special muzzle brake for the AMD-65 to avoid SBR issues. The basic slant brakes are cheap and I've used them but it comes down to economics. The K-Var one is over $50 and I can get a grip for $20. I've heard good things about Ronin's pistol grip and he is supposed to have good color matches.

I think 922r compliance has nothing to do with the way a brake is attached to the barrel. The regs are just a list of parts. If the barrel is less than 16" it is important to use something like heavy tacking or blind pinning since if it can be removed at all it is an SBR. When the compliance parts kits started turning up in the 90's the ATF had a lot of heartburn about and kind of threads on the muzzle. They were concerned that evil things might be attached. They seem to have mellowed out a bit with barrels that are long enough.

That Swedish pine tar is pungent. I wear gloves when working with it but the smell really gets on me. I think it really does penetrate. I've been making some sample pieces and noticed that pieces that spent about 10 hours soaking we much darker than some that spent 4 hours. I guess the tar/turpentine mix is not at all like an oil or other finish that seals. A lot of oils like Watco have a point where they don't darken any more as the oil part has sealed it off.

Steve

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Originally Posted by CrufflerSteve

It also comes down to economics. I needed a special muzzle brake for the AMD-65 to avoid SBR issues. The basic slant brakes are cheap and I've used them but it comes down to economics. The K-Var one is over $50 and I can get a grip for $20. I've heard good things about Ronin's pistol grip and he is supposed to have good color matches.

I think 922r compliance has nothing to do with the way a brake is attached to the barrel. The regs are just a list of parts. If the barrel is less than 16" it is important to use something like heavy tacking or blind pinning since if it can be removed at all it is an SBR. When the compliance parts kits started turning up in the 90's the ATF had a lot of heartburn about and kind of threads on the muzzle. They were concerned that evil things might be attached. They seem to have mellowed out a bit with barrels that are long enough.

That Swedish pine tar is pungent. I wear gloves when working with it but the smell really gets on me. I think it really does penetrate. I've been making some sample pieces and noticed that pieces that spent about 10 hours soaking we much darker than some that spent 4 hours. I guess the tar/turpentine mix is not at all like an oil or other finish that seals. A lot of oils like Watco have a point where they don't darken any more as the oil part has sealed it off.

Steve

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ah yeah i hear ya steve, you're right a grip is cheaper than an american brake and ronin's grips are very nice, i have a pair myself. oh and i was talking about the different styles of brakes more as astetics think of it like a half moon is early, zig zag is mid pattern and a one piece hammer forged type is later and current pattern.

edit: oh yeah and where 922r IS affected by how something is attatched is when a muzzle device becomes perminatly attached, then it is then part of the barrel and no longer technically a muzzle device. If this wasn't so we wouldn't be able to build amd's with original barrels as if the device perminatly attched wouldn't become part of the barrel then an amd would still only have a 12.5 inch barrel. i know it may seem like it's just semantics but that is why psl's are able to be imported into the us, even if they have muzzle threads, with a perminatly attached brake they no longer have a romovable muzzle device and the brake is therefore part of the barrel.

i want to experiment with soaking the wood for a long time in SPT but i have to say the romy stock that i rubbed it into like BLO ended up nearly perfectly matching a virgin polish handguard set i have so i quit with that and decided to keep them together as a set. i didn't apply shelac since the polish hg's don't have it either but i'm tempted to shelac it all anyway just to have more fun ;)

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Originally Posted by jreifsch80

edit: oh yeah and where 922r IS affected by how something is attatched is when a muzzle device becomes perminatly attached, then it is then part of the barrel and no longer technically a muzzle device. If this wasn't so we wouldn't be able to build amd's with original barrels as if the device perminatly attched wouldn't become part of the barrel then an amd would still only have a 12.5 inch barrel. i know it may seem like it's just semantics but that is why psl's are able to be imported into the us, even if they have muzzle threads, with a perminatly attached brake they no longer have a romovable muzzle device and the brake is therefore part of the barrel.

i want to experiment with soaking the wood for a long time in SPT but i have to say the romy stock that i rubbed it into like BLO ended up nearly perfectly matching a virgin polish handguard set i have so i quit with that and decided to keep them together as a set. i didn't apply shelac since the polish hg's don't have it either but i'm tempted to shelac it all anyway just to have more fun ;)

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I'm still not so sure about 922r. It is a reg and has nothing to do with NFA. 922r is just a parts list. NFA is where attachment methods come in. People with an NFA gun used to assume 922r didn't apply and since ATF can be depended upon to be undependable don't count on it.

I've sliced up some baltic birch into little pieces for finish testing. Being bare wood it might have been more absorbent than the Romy wood. I let some pieces soak all day in a ba in the sun yesterday and they are almost pure black. I'd be cautious about using too much. My Romy's turned out just right getting that treatment for 4 hours or so.

The neat thing about the shellac is that you can decide how glossy to make it. If you dull it back with some 0000 steel wool it isn't so obvious. When I get around to my Polish underfolder I'll probably used a dulled shellac.

Steve

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Originally Posted by CrufflerSteve

I'm still not so sure about 922r. It is a reg and has nothing to do with NFA. 922r is just a parts list. NFA is where attachment methods come in. People with an NFA gun used to assume 922r didn't apply and since ATF can be depended upon to be undependable don't count on it.

I've sliced up some baltic birch into little pieces for finish testing. Being bare wood it might have been more absorbent than the Romy wood. I let some pieces soak all day in a ba in the sun yesterday and they are almost pure black. I'd be cautious about using too much. My Romy's turned out just right getting that treatment for 4 hours or so.

The neat thing about the shellac is that you can decide how glossy to make it. If you dull it back with some 0000 steel wool it isn't so obvious. When I get around to my Polish underfolder I'll probably used a dulled shellac.

Steve

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so how did your long time soaked pieces turn out steve? i think i'm going to shelac my polish hg set and pomy stock that matches too just for added protection and because i love shelac ;) i'll bring my refinished furniture along next time i see you so you can see how it came out, it's alot like your romy set, it looks great

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Originally Posted by jreifsch80

so how did your long time soaked pieces turn out steve? i think i'm going to shelac my polish hg set and pomy stock that matches too just for added protection and because i love shelac ;) i'll bring my refinished furniture along next time i see you so you can see how it came out, it's alot like your romy set, it looks great

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I think there might be a bit of a difference between raw Baltic birch plywood and the laminate in an AK stock. For one thing, the stock set had been finished before so it might have limited how much the pine tar penetrated. I really don't like the raw plywood that spent about 10 hours in the tar. It is almost black enough to lose the wood look.

I prepared my Romy wood by soaking it for 24 hours in denatured alcohol. While in the alcohol, I scrubbed it a lot with steel wool to help pull the old shellac off. It looked pretty cleaned off when it dried. Then I sanded 150,220,320,400 before a 4 or so hour soak in pine tar. That stuff mixed 50/50 with turpentine really penetrates. After sitting for a day it wasn't bleeding out at all, even in the sun. Then it was time to shellac. I drilled a hole in my work table to stick a dowel rod so the stock was sitting up and not touching anything. I think a red stain might have been cool after tar and before the shellac.

I know this seem like a conversation with Justin but I do have more Swedish pine tar than I can use. I also have Garnet & Thai seedlac flakes from shellac.net. I'd be happy to share some of this stuff with local builders. I will bring it to the party.

Steve

Great info Steve!!
Ive been talking to Justin a bit about it,and he realy likes how easy it is and it comes out
And after I saw a few photos of it done,id like to try some on a couple of stocks I have and then maybe redoing my russian sks
When i bought the sks new-well newly imported-it had a nice dark color to it,i loaned it to a bud of mine and he messed up the original finish and decided to refinish it-ok i diddnt mind,he meant well and he restained it to a walnut color-it dosent look all that bad
I just would like to try and bring it back to the russian dark finish
Too bad i wont be able to make it out to Colorado this year on vacation :(
Next time i come out,itll be a permanent move-so im saving up for it :)
You guys have fun and make sure you take some good pictures!!!

i talked to mike at arms of america and they aren't going to be getting another back of elk river 74 receivers but he did say that his hard chroming company can do the 5.45 barrels but as he oly has a few currently it will have to be some from his next batch so it will be a month or so till he has chrome lined 5.45 barrels in stock.