Original Finish on pre ban AK's

[kansasfal]

I have been courious about something for awhile and thought some of the AK guys on here that know a heck of alot more than I do about AK's can help me with.

What type of finish would you find on preban factory AK's...ie. Were they painted, blued, Baked finish.
I would also like to know what type of primmer they used. I want to find out what the Russians, bulgarians, etc........did to finish there AK's

Thanks

[Brian in MN]

The answer is "yes".

Polytech and Norinco rifles are blued. Yugos are blued. Valmets are parked. Hungarians are painted. The Bulgarian 74 kit in my closed is painted. I believe that Egyptian AKM's are painted.

[kansasfal]

Thanks Brian,

On the AK's that are painted are they also parked

Is the blueing process done over clean bare metal or is there some sort or undercoating for the blueing process.

Thanks

[3GUN]

Both bluing and Parkerizing involve converting a tiny amount of the base metal (steel) in to part of the finish, so the steel must be both bare and very clean.

Bluing is a form of oxidation, hot corrosive salts is used to convert the base metal. Quality of bluing seems to vary a lot. Some dos an ok job protecting the steel, some a poor job. All bluing require that the blue steel be routinely oiled or waxed.

One big advantage of bluing is it works well on highly polished steel.

Parkerizing involves converting the steel and the zinc or manganese in the solution into a porous coating. It absorbs much more oil then other finishes, and is very rust resistant. When used as a primer it absorbs the paint and protects the interior parts off the gun you would not want to cover with a thick coat of paint. Parking works best on rough surface.

Paint (this includes all the hi-tech epoxy and baked on finishes) gives the best protection from rust; they will also cover stainless steel unlike bluing or parking. On the down side, with hard use / handling they will chip or scratch and cosmetically this looks much worse to me the worn bluing or parking.

I like the looks of Parkerizing on an AK, and as a bonus you can do a factory quality job yourself.

The best finish from a practical standpoint would be park with a hi-tech paint on the outside of the gun for added protection.