Original Oil Finish - Not Shellac, 11 mil /26\

[martin08]

Picked up an 11 mil Jianshe at a gun show this weekend.  Looks like an excellent original matching gun.

Not a drop of shellac is evident on the stock, inside or out.  No evidence of sanding, cleaning, etc.  All of the small sub-inspector marks on the butt, wrist and fore stock are crisp.  The triangle-2 on the left side is deeply struck.

Now, this is not the first SKS I've owned with an oil finish.  I'll show another one or two later.  And I do have several original matching guns with shellac finish.  But I believe that either finish could be correct for original production.

There is not much "searchable" material available on this subject.  If you google combinations of search words  with "sks, oil finish, stock, original finish, etc", all you get is a ton of folks stripping and applying tung oil to their stocks.

This one is linseed oil only.  I'm sure others have examples like this.  Post it up if you got it!

I used large images to represent the best detail

[Phosphorus32]

Nice! I've never seen one with the original drying oil type of finish, whether it's tung or linseed.

Fun facts: China is currently the world's leading producer of flax (flaxseed oil = linseed oil), although I'm sure their global market position was much lower in 1966. On the other hand, the use of tung oil, aka 桐油 tóng­yóu, originated in China, and they also produced that, so either one is possible.

Both types of oil function in the same fashion, curing involves slow oxidation and cross-linking of the polyunsaturated fatty acids in air in their pure form. Boiled linseed oil, or typical tung oil preparations found at your local hardware store, utilize petroleum distillates as thinners/carriers (and cheap diluents of the more expensive linseed or tung oil) and traces of cobalt or manganese catalysts to accelerate the drying/curing process.

[Justin Hell]

Interesting...I was just debating in my head about this just last night...as I looked at one such as this. recalling LC saying he had never heard of one without the shellac finish.  I was wondering why/how mine was so unusual.
I have a 10m /26\ 100% original...all oil finish too.  Mine is not they typical orangish hue most SKSs have though....like yours appears.
It is more of a medium brown.  These pics are a few years old, but it hangs on my wall to this day just like it.  I purchased it brand new in around 97-98 with all the trimmings. It was my second SKS.

[martin08]

That stock looks unmolested as well, Justin.  Nice sharp edges and cartouches.  Fuzzy fibers around the end cuts.  Doesn't show any evidence of cleaning or stripping.

Never had shellac, IMO.  Great example.

[Justin Hell]

That stock looks unmolested as well, Justin.  Nice sharp edges and cartouches.  Fuzzy fibers around the end cuts.  Doesn't show any evidence of cleaning or stripping.

Never had shellac, IMO.  Great example.

It's nice to know it is somewhat unique...the wood has virtually no character to it at all, and it sits around almost being boring looking compared to the rest of the collection. I feel better now.

I will admit that the 'dullness' of this one inspired many future purchases. But my third SKS was a /906\ with a very similar (more orange) oil finish like yours. That one has a couple ugly repair chunks, so I have another wood set for it, and it also has been bubba'd to a degree...so no pics here.

[martin08]

I took my pics in direct sunlight, and it does have an appearance of shine.  But when standing in the rack next to the shellac finished guns, it's also a rather dull looking piece.

Here are a couple of comparison pics to a shellac finish, made in indirect lighting.  Not nearly as orange or shiny.

[Loose}{Cannon]

From my experience using shellac on these stocks.

When the wood is bare as in not being sealed in anyway with any other finishes etc, when you apply your first light coat to the raw/bare wood, this is exactly what you get.  To me, it simply looks like the stock only received the first 'sealing' coat of shellac. 

[Loose}{Cannon]

I'm not saying it 'has' to be what I suggest.... Only could it be?   Simply looks that way to me.  I know one thing, and that is this time frame of production saw a big push to increase yearly totals to 600k

[martin08]

I just put it to the best test I know for shellac.  I dipped one end of a q-tip in denatured alcohol and soaked the inside surface of the left finger groove.  The alcohol did puddle, and did not appear to soak into the stock.  I allowed it to stand for one minute, and wiped with the dry end of the q-tip.

It surely picked up some dirt.  But it's tough to tell in artificial light if finish looks any different at all.  I'll take another pic from the same angle and lighting tomorrow, and see if any of the shine went away.

[Loose}{Cannon]

If its a light or even 'thinned' shellac that penetrated the wood, not much will be on the surface.  Also, when you add alcohol to flake, it takes something like 12 hours to dissolve.  So I dunno how much affect it would have over just a min or two, and not having much on the surface.   

[Justin Hell]

Golly....that inverted takedown stock with the big butt sure has some nice grain.
That wouldn't happen to not have a serial would it? I have searched high and low for an unserialed stock like that for my 78.  I had to settle for one cut for a scope rail.

That comparison does make yours appear more akin to my /906\ in color.  I would blame it on cosmoline staining, but I have stripped a stock very similar in color to your shellac one there and refinished without staining, after sweating off excess finish and cosmoline, it ended up a strawberry blonde.  A similar process on another very red one yielded a gorgeous honey like color...with a spectacular grain.  Neither showed as much figuring in the grain while still wearing their shellac. I may have toasted the wood a little with the heat gun making the grain pop, but whatever color that was in the finish seemed to mostly vanish.

It makes me curious as to what they do for color to these artificially, and how much the wood may just vary naturally.  I wonder if it is a garnet/clear shellac blend or if they dye clear shellac for a more uniform color result over a varied result natural color would have given? 

[Loose}{Cannon]

I would think its more of an amber/clear shellac.  The color will vary depending on supply.

[Greasemonkey]

Interesting.. just my take on the possibility of oil finished stocks..

When one says China and an oil finished stock.. this one of mine comes to mind......and while it's not an SKS, it is Chinese. These were like the SKS, with a yellowish/orange typical Chu wood or this type of dark, dare I say walnut, alot depended on the importer and if it was Polytech or Norinco manufactured.

I can see some similarities in this finish and the finish the rifles shown.. it is kinda dull, but maintains a slight sheen revealing the actual grain when held a certain way.

If its a light or even 'thinned' shellac that penetrated the wood, not much will be on the surface.  Also, when you add alcohol to flake, it takes something like 12 hours to dissolve.  So I dunno how much affect it would have over just a min or two, and not having much on the surface.   

In my experience with shellac... usually the "melting" effect is somewhat instant when alcohol comes into contact with the finish on a rifle finish. I had a mild stupid with my Ak stock when I did it, and the marks it left from a few drops was quick. And if China was or is a producer, why render it to dry flake form, just to turn around and liquefy it again to use on stocks. Wouldn't they just use what they were producing as they needed it?

It was........the Great Lac Bug Famine.. almost no shellac production those years..

[Loose}{Cannon]

Shellac starts out life as a hard chunk.  The alcohol would still have to be added by the chinese.  Alcohol does not come out of the azz of the lac bug.  This is why it can be thinned down.... By anyone.

[martin08]

Awesome M14 clone, GM.  Agreed, it's an oil finish.

And my experience with alcohol contacting a shellacked stock is the same.  As soon as the alcohol hits the shellac, it begins melting away.

Below are a couple of pics of the left grasping groove which I swabbed last evening with alcohol on a q-tip.  It picked up a little dirt on the cotton swab, but didn't diminish the finish at all.

Either the beetles were on strike, or they just ran low on shellac that day in 1966 (I think the lac famine was over by then), but linseed oil was the back-up stock finish for this particular gun, and apparently for Justin's as well.

[Loose}{Cannon]

Looks like it pulled up some shellac, but not having one to look at myself, ill have to take you guys word for it.  Oil it is