I just discovered a way to get an easy authentic looking Russian Red finish on my AK. The solution is Solar Lux Blood Red dye. Just apply the dye to stripped and sanded furniture and let dry. Add as many coats as you want to get the depth of color you want. Once thoroughly dry apply as many coats of finish as you want. I went with 6 coats of poly and it came out perfect. Being alcohol based the dye does not raise the grain. I tried the Rit Dye and poly method and could never get it to work and gave up until I ran across this dye. I will post pictures when I have completed the project.

That's what I use on maple. It won't take stain but it drinks up solar lux.

Wonder if this would "take" on a Birch stock of one of my model 99 Savages?

I see no reason why it shouldn't. As long as the stock has had all stain/finish removed and sanded well. They offer a good selection of dye colors so go to their web site to check it out > https://www.shellac.net/SolarLuxDye.html

Thanks for the link. I have a folding stock variant of the AK and the forend came unfinished. Might just line up all my stock projects and fix them at the same time.

Sounds like a plan. That's what I did.

Pictures when I have completed the project. Handguards first followed by buttstock when I have finished stripping, etc..

Pictures with two coats of dye and two coats of poly.

Looks like it came out really nice!

Nice!

That looks great. Soon to be in the classifieds by any chance?

I am working on two sets of ak furniture. One set goes on my ak and I will probably sell the other one.

Interesting. You always have great guns.

Awesome! I also have a tang safety Ruger that had a patch of finish wrinkle up. Sanded it off and sealed it with poly but really want to sand it again and add a stain that is similar to the rest of the stock. Kind of hard to figure exactly which stain to order. I have a tore apart Marlin made in 1958 I need to do also as I just had a new barrel put on it. Been moving back to wood stocks partly and some of them need some work for sure.

Solar lux comes in walnut. If your stock has some red in it you can mix stains to get the color you want. Patching a place on a stock will always show some difference from the rest of the stock. I would be inclined to strip the whole stock and refinish it

I received a PM asking how I applied the dye and poly so here goes. I first used citrus stripper to remove all of the old finish. Then I sanded the furniture down to 400 grit sandpaper and then burnished with 0000 steel wool. I then used tack cloth to remove all sanding dust and steel wool fragments. Next I applied the dye straight from the bottle with a cheese cloth pad. It dries with a flat look. I waited 30 min and then lightly went over it with 0000 steel wool and tack cloth. I applied one more coat of dye and let it sit overnight. Then went over it one more time very lightly with 0000 steel wool and tack cloth. Next I applied a thin coat of gloss poly with a sponge brush. The dull dye popped with color when I applied the poly. I waited 24 hours and applied another coat of poly. In all I applied 6 coats of poly but I think I could have gotten away with just 4 coats. I let the poly cure for 48 hours and then applied Johnson paste wax and buffed to a high sheen.