here's my two sks's refinished (link inside to pics)

[trickyasafox]

sorry i wanted to copy and paste the whole post, but i dont know how to do that and get the pics. so im gonna link everyone

http://www.sksboards.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=14488

from my blatent lack of experience and anything that is a semblence of knowledge on the matter of bluing, i'd say the m59/66 is near perfect 97-98% condition on the blueing, and the m59 is low 92-93%

both seem to cycle and eject well. im terrible with stripper clips but hopfully a little practice will help that. 9 bucks a box is a bit steep for me to be shooting these yet, so i may have to wait for some wolf to become available locally. i have one box of remmie ammo i'll send down range soon

 

[Live Free Or Die]

Thanks for your post -- the rifles look pretty nice after the steam treatment. You mentioned on the sks site that you both steamed and "baked" them. Did you use your kitchen oven for the baking, or did you rig up your own oven out of trash cans and incandescent lights? Did the steam alone get any of the cosmo out? I was thinking of buying a cheap steam cleaner like the one you have for cosmoline removal, and I'm wondering if it's effective.

 

[DWARREN123]

SKS's are nice little rifles. Good looking rifles.

 

[trickyasafox]

livefreeordie-

yup baked em right in a conventional oven. on the lowest setting, i wiped them down every 30-45 minutes. some people say every 15 but i found that to be a bit too much, not a lot of cosmo was built up.

the steam melted the cosmo. some would run off from the heat, but mainly it made it a lot easier to wipe down. i did boil the bolts, (on one bolt i couldnt get it clean, so i cheated and used a touch of rubbing alchohol to disolve the last of the cosmo out of it)

but yea the steamer really did work great. make sure you have a heavy glove sitting around to hold parts while you steam them, i just used a regular leather work glove, but something a bit heavier would probably be nice.

 

[Dacoda]

I used WD-40 on mine. not sure if it's recommended. the steam idea didn't even occur to me. but the WD-40 ate thru the cosmo like Rosie O'Donnel at the buffet table.