Quick question about refurb color

[Vati66]

I currently have 8 Mosin nagant rifles, all refurbished. 6 of them are the thick reddish shellac, while the other 2 are more brown in color and look to have much less shellac on them. Any idea why the lighter shellac job?

Vati

[jones0430]

Different people did it, at different times, and possibly at different locations. It wasn't a highly controlled process.

[redspoon]

Wow that's a $64 question, I got a lot of mosins some refurbs and no two are the same color. I know that don't answer ur question, but take into account the type of wood used in the stock. I think most were birch some beech and a few others maybe and yeah the shellac probably did vary in shade or color from time to time, the same batch of shellac placed on different type of stocks and you get a lot of shades of brown.

Red

[Vati66]

I figured it was different arsenals or something like that. Never thought about type of wood. Thanks Gents

Vati

[qz2026]

Wow that's a $64 question, I got a lot of mosins some refurbs and no two are the same color. I know that don't answer ur question, but take into account the type of wood used in the stock. I think most were birch some beech and a few others maybe and yeah the shellac probably did vary in shade or color from time to time, the same batch of shellac placed on different type of stocks and you get a lot of shades of brown.

Red

I agree that it is the wood. It seems to me that most of the refurbs generally come in two types: light and "lighter" - wood that shellacs brownish and a thicker more robust wood that is darker that shellacs much darker in tones of red. I am not sure if both are birch or not. Both could be birch but grown in different areas in Russia or even outside.

[Darryl]

I think you are looking at both on the refurbs.

Both the wood color, and the coloring in the shellac (red to no red coloring).

http://thedolk.com/junk/Carbine_colors/

Clearly, the red to very dark red refurbs have more red coloring in the shellac. Some rifles seem to have zero coloring and are more of an amber color. You can see this on Mosins where the shellac is flaking bad. The wood underneath is almost a blond color, and the red color is entirely in the shellac.

None of the wood is a reddish color, that is totally the Shellac. The darker wood can make the reddish shellac darker in appearance also. So I'd say it is both.

Dolk

[QCI Mosins]

I had a beautiful 1944 Ishevsk 91/30, all matching numbers in the same font, still had a hammer and sickle etc. on the side of the butt. The rifle was MINT, but what really stood out was the dark brown stock, only a thin coat of shellac. Wish I had never sold it.... I got a really good price for it. I also had a 1945 M44 carbine that I was told came from a batch of rifles from Cuba. It did not have shellac at all, but some sort of oil finish.

[target]

Different arsenals, different materials, different people, different levels of QC, major gaps in time from when the refurb program started to when it ended. My 16 Soviet Refurbs vary from Red, dark brown, light brown, yellow, blond, orange, and nearly black.