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I can't seem to find any place that has cheap wood AK furniture in stock. CFS used to have whole Romy stock sets for $20-30. Now just a stock is running $30... Apex doesn't have any deals either. Is there still a source for cheap original AKM furniture these days?

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Unfortunately the sets have gone up a lot and as you have already noticed availability is limited. NOS stuff is also becoming rarer. Occasionally center fire will carry stock sets for the price you are looking at paying, but they will be battlefield take offs, and may or may not be refinishable.

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I can't seem to find any place that has cheap wood AK furniture in stock. CFS used to have whole Romy stock sets for $20-30. Now just a stock is running $30... Apex doesn't have any deals either. Is there still a source for cheap original AKM furniture these days?

I have a couple of complete buttstocks with hardware, both are refinished, and both are non laminated Bulgarian. Unfortunately, I am out of the the LHG and UHG. If you would like one of the buttstocks, I will be happy to send you one. It's not a complete set, but it may make buying the handguard less of an impact on you. PM your address if you are interested. I'll shoot you some pics of the Buttstocks and if you want one, I will send it out at no charge.

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I know you said original, but don't forget Ironwood.........

 

Timber Smiths? They once had beautiful English and American Walnut sets for AKs. Dunno about the cost or present availability though. HB of CJ (old coot)

Price is the biggest factor here :) I have a couple of kits for which I have no furniture. One of them just came as a barrel assembly, and the other one I chopped up the stock to fit a MAK-90 until I get a proper stock for it. IWD and Timbersmith both make great furniture - and they both charge for that quality.

 

 

 

I can't seem to find any place that has cheap wood AK furniture in stock. CFS used to have whole Romy stock sets for $20-30. Now just a stock is running $30... Apex doesn't have any deals either. Is there still a source for cheap original AKM furniture these days?

I have a couple of complete buttstocks with hardware, both are refinished, and both are non laminated Bulgarian. Unfortunately, I am out of the the LHG and UHG. If you would like one of the buttstocks, I will be happy to send you one. It's not a complete set, but it may make buying the handguard less of an impact on you. PM your address if you are interested. I'll shoot you some pics of the Buttstocks and if you want one, I will send it out at no charge.

 

Wow, that would be extremely helpful! I'd rather pay you something, if you'll accept it - especially as the Bulgarian stuff is higher quality than the Romy junk I was looking for.

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Choice is yours...Bulgarian is on the left, at least that is what Centerfire advertised it as. It does have a gouge at the bottom, that I had filled in. I have not had a chance to completely refinish it. I do have all the hardware for it, and will include it even though it is not pictured. The AKM furniture on the right (origin unknown) were a battlefield take off from the Balkans that I was able to salvage. IMO, the grain is much nicer on this stock.

post-37530-0-78826200-1398133380_thumb.jpg

 

I also have a Romy lower Hand guard with the vertical grip. It is yours if you want it. I never cared for the vertical grip.

post-37530-0-91425400-1398133786_thumb.jpg

 

I offer this as a pay it forward. I appreciate your offer to pay something, but I would prefer it be one gun enthusiast looking out for another. So choose a stock and the hand guard (if you want it) and finish up your build. The only requirement I have is that you post up pics when done.

Edited by Spacehog
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I really like the Bulgarian AK74 stuff, but if you are planning on refinishing, keep in mind that most of even the good solid wood surplus tends to be different wood in front, and in back. That makes matching the finishes tricky. Also the top guard will usually be a laminate even if the lower forend and the stock are solid. Each will take finish differently.

 

For those reasons, it can be more convenient to pay a little more for a set that already matches. I bought a very pretty refinished set from Mark W1 who sells on many forums. His guy uses a minwax blend. It looked great and gets compliments and often offers to purchase. However, I have found that the finish is easy to ding up and it is due for a refinish already despite trying to baby that gun. On the other hand, I refinished a set of the same type of furniture and put on 5-6 layers of a high quality urethane on top of natural vegetable dye. This one was intended for rough use and has got it, and barely shows any signs of wear. Just a little ding from being folded onto a scope mount unthinkingly. -- My conclusion? Even if you buy a very nice stock set, invest in some high quality urethane and put a bunch of layers on to keep it nice.

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Ooh, that's actually the more desirable Romy grip, too! Meant to fit an underfolder. I will be sending you a PM later tonight! I'm not sure how long it will be before I get all of the tools to put the kit together, but I'll definitely put together a mockup with the furniture you send me. And I'll find something fun to put up as a pay it forward.

GunFun - I appreciate all the advice. To be completely blunt, appearance is way, way secondary for me on most of my AK rifles - if it works well, that's good enough. Wood furniture is nice and robust. As long as the finish protects the wood decently, I'm happy. I've never stained or finished wood in my life. I may learn to do so to try to match this stock with a set of handguards - or I may let it look like a hodgepodge.

 

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Just shoot me a PM when you are ready. The wood isn't going anywhere.

 

I really like the Bulgarian AK74 stuff, but if you are planning on refinishing, keep in mind that most of even the good solid wood surplus tends to be different wood in front, and in back. That makes matching the finishes tricky. Also the top guard will usually be a laminate even if the lower forend and the stock are solid. Each will take finish differently.

 

For those reasons, it can be more convenient to pay a little more for a set that already matches. I bought a very pretty refinished set from Mark W1 who sells on many forums. His guy uses a minwax blend. It looked great and gets compliments and often offers to purchase. However, I have found that the finish is easy to ding up and it is due for a refinish already despite trying to baby that gun. On the other hand, I refinished a set of the same type of furniture and put on 5-6 layers of a high quality urethane on top of natural vegetable dye. This one was intended for rough use and has got it, and barely shows any signs of wear. Just a little ding from being folded onto a scope mount unthinkingly. -- My conclusion? Even if you buy a very nice stock set, invest in some high quality urethane and put a bunch of layers on to keep it nice.

You are spot on with the matching issue in regards to the way different parts take stain. I have even seen a wide variance in the way different parts take stain within matching sets. Typically you have to vary stain density to match them up. IMHO urethane is also the way to go. This is the method that I use on my AK stocks....stain and several layers of Spar urethane. The stock on the right has (8) layers, the one on the left only has the first layer. The thing about urethane is...as you apply more coats, and sand the finish slick between coats, you will eventually get a glossy finish, even if using a satin or semi-gloss urethane. The trick is to use 0000 steel wool to burnish the gloss off the final coat, and then buff. The final product comes out very nice and very durable.

 

I pick up wood sets cheap when I can find them, mostly just to play with finishes and try new techniques. I think the romy handguard and the stock on the right set me back $16 bucks a year ago from CFS. They were in rough shape when they arrived. I picked up three at the time, and refinished two for friends.

 

Both sets match the lower hand guard fairly well in overall color. Shandlanos, if you want I can finish them up so they match in gloss level before sending them out. I will also give you the stain formula for the upper hand guard to match up the set when you find one.

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