Refinishing Soviet weapons

[DaveHAL9000]

I have an AK and some demilled weapons that are in need of refinishing. I want to keep them as accurate as possible. What type of finish do I ask gunsmiths for? I can't tell if it's some kind of parkerizing or what it is.

My AKs are Maadis. One is well finished and I won't touch it, but the other was painted over another type of finish and needs to be redone. Thanks!

[SierraAV8R]

Typically sport a phosphate finish (parkerizing) under a baked enamal. It's fairly easy to duplicate at home as long as the phosphate is still in fairly good shape.

If not, you're gonna' have to bead, or preferably sand blast and start from scratch.

[MIG21]

I am curious about the Russian finishes as well. I assume the newer Russian weapons use a satim finish black paint over parkerizing like the Bulgarian kits but were the earlier weapons paint over parkerizing too? I assumed that the earlier ones were just parkerized. If they didn't paint them in the early days, when did they start?
Thanks,
MIG21

[Chamberlin]

Still trying to narrow the years down, but I have both Russian
AK-47 Type III kits all matching, original finishes, one is blued, one is enamel over phosphate. Since Type III AK's don't have
year markings (or even at least markings we can decode yet),
one can only guess they started the paint over park as a precursor to the AKM developement; so you gotta figure the late 50's as the starting point. As far as I know, no AK left the factory in just raw park, although you will see a few Russian kits out there that have been 're-parked over' by other countries.
BTW, once you have blasted and parked your gun, use norrel's
moly resin, semi gloss black, decant off some of the moly after letting it settle (to lessen the graphite look and keep the black deep in shade), and spray with an airbrush on an already pre-heated gun at a distance of ~12". Bake for 15min and repeat until
desired texture is achieved. For a glossier look, spray cold and closer. I know of only one gunsmith that can do a better looking and proper job than this, but he won't reveal his secret fully to me... I do know he uses a two part epoxy, and that it can be very
difficult to work with.... Hope this helps-
-C