I have a 1959 Romanian. It is a very nice shooter with a good finish on the metal but it looks like the stock has been thrown around quite a bit. Indentations are all small but I can see them. The shellac or lacquer or whatever they finished this thing with is gone from the bottom where the front hand position would go.

I've watched a few videos on restoring and they were using something called Tru oil for the top finish with a light fine steel wool scuffing between coats. Before I just try this it would be nice to hear from somebody that has done this and is it holding up well?

The other issue I just discovered is with the gun assembled I can move the action just a tiny bit from side to side at the rear. I'm thinking all I need is to glue in some sort of a thin shim on each side. The question is what to use for this?

From what you are describing, I would use an epoxy that could be ground off here and there for a tight straight fit. Moving things, not sure but oil and elbow grease can really improve the appearance of wood.

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Sine Missione

I think I am going to use a product I'm familiar with called Quiksteel. It is a 2 part epoxy that molds like a soft clay. Once I put the gun back together it will conform to the gun easily but it won't run and drip all over the place.

"For repairs around home, hobbies, plumbing, automobiles, marine and farm, Resists temperatures up to 500°F (260°C), Virtually impervious to chemicals, Sets in 5 minutes, fully cures in as little as 1 hour, sets up underwater, bonds to wet or dry surfaces and hardens like steel, Can be drilled, tapped, filed, machined, sanded and painted.".

I've seen the drill indentation thing that people do when bedding so I will do that or I might cut grooves to give the wood some tooth. I'm only planning to bed the back area of the stock. I am going to do a release test to make sure that I can get the gun to come off the stuff once it sets. I have vaseline and Meguiars carnuba so I plan to try each one on something. Surely one of those will work. Meguiars carnuba paste wax is supposed to work on this epoxy.

When I removed my butt plate I noticed that the gun has been drug around or parked on the butt plate so many, many times that it has worn a slit through the steel. I think I will mig that and grind it back down smooth. I also noticed that my butt plate doesn't seat down well on the stock so I am going to sand that mating surface of the stock down some so the butt stock has a better fit.

I think that covers it. I ordered the Midway tru oil based refinishing kit and I need to get a red tinted stain like a red oak or deep cherry maybe to mix with the walnut to get the proper coloration for this thing.

Mine looks just like this except my stock is in a bit worse condition than this. It won't be when I'm done. I guess I will hit the final tru oil coat with fine steel wool to take the gloss finish on it down just a bit since that is most often what I see on these guns.

I have used Tru Oil before. It works great. I think it still comes in a spray can or bottle. It gives a nice finish.

I tested the carnuba as a release agent and it appears to work fine. My refinishing kit is coming on the brown santa truck today. The tru oil as shown in their video is in a bottle and you wipe it on.

I'm starting to wonder if my epoxy solution is going to work well or not. I have watched a few videos on bedding the SKS and they all report a dramatic improvement in shot groups. I would expect so since you can wiggle the back end of the stock back and forth. Every shot could wind up causing it to shift back and forth. All the other stocks had the same problem as mine so its nothing unique.

It looks like there are 2 main points that benefit from bedding. One is around the front cross bolt that runs through the stock and the other is in the back which is not fixed by anything more than clamping pressure from the trigger group.

I got my stock sanded and it looks pretty decent except that I have these random dark marks or dots on it. I think the new stain will just blend them out but I wonder what they are. I don't think this is a feature of the wood. Also wondering what wood this is. Definitely not walnut which would be nice and its not some sort of lamination either. Birch maybe?

I went over to Lowes and stared at stain colors for about an hour and came home with minwax red mahogony furniture stain. I did 2 light coats and it looks great. If I can now pull off the truoil application I will be happy.I experimented with it on a board and frankly, it doesn't look that bad and it also is not ridiculously thick like the gummy feeling stuff that was on there. It took 80 grit paper to knock that down and then I had at least an hour of finish sanding to get the scratch marks out and smooth the stock. This is almost more trouble than its worth but I will probably change my mind once it is finished.