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Posted: 8/11/2010 7:19:36 PM EDT
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Well this is part two of my experimenting with shellac. If you recall I tried Garnet shellac to see if I could halfway recreate that Russian Red look.
It was suggested that I try Ruby Shellac. I ordered the flakes and here is the results. My opinion is that it came out too brown. When woodworking sites say "red" that's code for "brown" but just not "poop brown". Haha. I love the way it gets that chameleon effect but I think the contrast between the light and dark areas is "clownish". Of course it looks better than an oil based pigment stain where the stain will not coat evenly into birch because birch is a notoriously difficult wood to stain evenly. 
I'm starting to think that the garnet was closer to the color I wanted. I will try adding a little bit of transtint dye to the garnet shellac and give that a chance. That's the nice thing about shellac. it is really easy to remove. Here is what the garnet looked like. 
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Damn, that ruby really didn't give the color I was expecting from just looking at the flake. That actually looks more like what I would have expected from the amber. How thick of a layer did you apply? I guess it really takes quite a bit of thickness to give the deep red color I was expecting.
Did you try the Kusmi button shellac yet? I'm curious about it too. You'll definitely be able to achieve the color you're looking for by tinting. But, it really would be easier to experiment on small pieces of birch plywood to get close to what you want before doing the whole stock set. |
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I guess that depends on which soviet finish you're referring to. I've seen examples of soviet furniture in quite a few different shades. I would assume that these are from different periods of production but I couldn't say for sure. It may just be dependent on how much vodka the guys applying the finish had for lunch, IDK.
Here is just one source with some pretty good pics of the variations in Russian wood. Most of these are quite a bit darker and "richer" in color than the ones pictured above, not that his looks bad by any means. |
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Quoted:
Damn, that ruby really didn't give the color I was expecting from just looking at the flake. That actually looks more like what I would have expected from the amber. How thick of a layer did you apply? I guess it really takes quite a bit of thickness to give the deep red color I was expecting. Did you try the Kusmi button shellac yet? I'm curious about it too. You'll definitely be able to achieve the color you're looking for by tinting. But, it really would be easier to experiment on small pieces of birch plywood to get close to what you want before doing the whole stock set. Kusmi #1 looks like liquid caramel. And it is much milkier looking in the jar. I'm thinking it will give the same color as the honey brown ak 74 stock sets. That's why I didn't try it. Although honey brown is an interesting look to go for. |
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I've got three goals.
1) To get the same color as Zrecto. I'm thinking to hit that I have to go with dewaxed garnet and either tint it slightly or just coat the hell out of my stock with it. 2) To get the same red as the Russian stock sets. Their finish appears more cloudy than Zrecto's but again each of their stock sets could vary. But if you look on rusmilitary.com you can see that it doesn't seem to be as glowing as Zrecto's stuff. Zrecto's stuff seems to mimic the earlier finishes and is probably visually more appealing than the milky Russian finishes I find on some of the guns on Tantal's site. Again there is lots of variation. 3) Honey Brown AK 74 furniture would be acceptable to me. The problem with working on birch plywood is that I don't have baltic birch plywood and regular birch plywood does not seem to have the same properties nor can I evaluate how the end grain versus edge grain is taking the color. I did some experimenting on birch plywood and had some inkling as to how things would turn out but until you see it on the layers of laminate, you've got no idea if you'll be satisfied or not. |
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Quoted:
The problem with working on birch plywood is that I don't have baltic birch plywood and regular birch plywood does not seem to have the same properties nor can I evaluate how the end grain versus edge grain is taking the color. I did some experimenting on birch plywood and had some inkling as to how things would turn out but until you see it on the layers of laminate, you've got no idea if you'll be satisfied or not. I didn't realize you were refinishing Russian baltic birch. I just assumed you were using a birch IWD stock set. But, I do understand what you mean about the end grain differences. I use birch plywood for my wood dye experimentation, when refinishing a birch stock, because birch takes color differently than other woods and the plywood tst pieces gives me a closer approximation of final color than I wood get using pine or other woods. I guess my suggestion is just to give you an idea of the final tonal qualities of the finish before applying it to the stock, but of course when applied to the stock it will have a different look due to the lamination layers. Just an idea. I'll be following your threads to see what you come up with, so thanks for sharing your experiments. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
The problem with working on birch plywood is that I don't have baltic birch plywood and regular birch plywood does not seem to have the same properties nor can I evaluate how the end grain versus edge grain is taking the color. I did some experimenting on birch plywood and had some inkling as to how things would turn out but until you see it on the layers of laminate, you've got no idea if you'll be satisfied or not. I didn't realize you were refinishing Russian baltic birch. I just assumed you were using a birch IWD stock set. But, I do understand what you mean about the end grain differences. I use birch plywood for my wood dye experimentation, when refinishing a birch stock, because birch takes color differently than other woods and the plywood tst pieces gives me a closer approximation of final color than I wood get using pine or other woods. I guess my suggestion is just to give you an idea of the final tonal qualities of the finish before applying it to the stock, but of course when applied to the stock it will have a different look due to the lamination layers. Just an idea. I'll be following your threads to see what you come up with, so thanks for sharing your experiments. As far as I know Ironwood is using baltic birch. It probably comes from Finland. His website says this: Virtually identical to Soviet era & other Eastern Euro AKs. The only source of high grade birch laminate with zero voids and high quality lumber I know of is Baltic Birch. I could be wrong. The plywood we get that isn't baltic birch I believe uses poplar or other lower grade woods and sometimes wood products for the ply's. I could be wrong on that but I think it's correct. |
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