Do I need to refinish this old SKS stock? Help

I have an old Chinese SKS.. finally got all the cosmoline off the metal parts and cleaned.

My only issue now is that the stock is in really bad shape.. I got most of the Cosmo out, and now just trying to figure out if I should scrub clean and oil or refinish completely. I know I can't get any of the trench art out which is fine, just want it to look and feel clean enough to use and look decent.

Any suggestions are appreciated. I have already tried oil soap and balistol with steel wool and it didn't help much so going to try solvent next, but looking like I may need to refinish completely, which is a bummer because I was trying to keep it as simple as possible.

If I had a nickel for every time I shared this video...:)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfcUwMWxJ2U
Steel wool works if it's extra grimy, but be careful. There is a very short moment between perfect, and all the original color gone forever. Steel wool quickens that moment. Acetone works too, better if there is a lot of oil, but is much less forgiving.
After lifting out all the grime, you can use a gentle heat gun or hair dryer to lift out oil that may have seeped into the wood. This can lighten any oil spots. After this, you can choose to steam out some of the dents. Finish with raw linseed oil - not sure what the traditional SKS finish was. Pics look like an oil finish. I've never had an SKS - I'm sure others will chime in on the correct finish when you are done.

Use Mineral Spirits and a bunch of rags, once it dries heat up the stock with a heat gun or your wife's blow dryer to draw more of the cosmoline out and repeat with the Mineral Spirits.

There are not cracks or dry rot on that stock so you are good to go. I bought one of these a while back the " trench art " you have is Albanian.

A bunch of members here help me locate the origin of the writing (trench art) and where these rifles came from.

"Surplus Chinese Type 56 SKS Rifle 7.62×30. These are Vietnam era Chinese Military rifles made by Jianshe Arsenal AKA “Factory 26”. These rifles are currently banned from importation by the US government, but this lot of SKS’s was granted a waiver because they spent the last 20 years in Albania. These rifles came out of Albania, and 20 years ago would put them in that part of the world for the Kosovo war. According to some research the Kosovo Liberation Army received and used arms from China, and the Type 56 SKS was one of the weapons they used. There is trench art and writing on some of these rifles that it is written using the latin alphabet, not Chinese characters."

I verified with the original importer that that's where all the SKS came from.

There is actually one split in the wood near the rear of where the receiver goes on the left side, but im going to glue it.. don't think it is beyong fixing. the upper handguard was also split but the metal parts that hold it will keep it together and i may glue it a bit also.

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Originally Posted by j_page2

There is actually one split in the wood near the rear of where the receiver goes on the left side, but im going to glue it.. don't think it is beyong fixing. the upper handguard was also split but the metal parts that hold it will keep it together and i may glue it a bit also.

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That is the one place you should flush the crack with acetone. Yiou can get one of those cheap Turkey hypodermic syringe and needle from the supermarket, it should be one made of HDPE it will be resistant to the acetone. Cut the. Tip of the needle off before the side holes. You can press the needle up to the crack and slowly flush out any Cosmo lean in oils that would inhibit the glue from setting . Use a good exterior grade glue, you can force it into the crack using a can of compressed air or if you have a compressor use very light pressure. You can also use Epoxy but it won’t flow as easy as exterior grade wood glue, when you were flushing it with the acetone make sure you position the stock in a manner that you have the least amount of runoff on other parts of the word otherwise it’s going to eat any finish that it touches

Chinese stocks should be finished in shellac. Shellac is alcohol soluble, and provided the stock is clean, you can add another layer of shellac after wiping it down with denatured alcohol.
Zissner amber shellac is a very close match to the Chinese orange color.