Recently a number of AK groups on the internet have been abuzz with green AK furniture. At first I thought this might have been various owners painting existing bakelite material dark green, but this was not to be the case. The furniture sets are real and are some of the rarest furniture sets that an AK collector can get their hands on.

Initially the green glass reinforced polymer was supposed to be adopted by the Soviet Union, for use on the AKM and then later on the AK74 series of rifles. However, a different polymer and color scheme were picked for what would become the iconic tan colored bakelite that we see today on traditional Soviet AK74/AKS74U/RPK74 rifles and light machine guns. So where does this leave us with the green furniture? Due to odd circumstances, the furniture was kept in production, and was given out as award guns to the Soviet Border guards when they retired from their service. These rifles were not actually used in service, but were awarded as a sort of gift to these men when they retired. Somehow, a small number of these sets that included the stock, grip, handguards, and magazine, all color matching, were able to make their way over to the United States and today the furniture is extremely rare among collectors, fetching upwards of hundreds of dollars for a complete set, or even a magazine. The sets were made for both the AKM and AK74 series of rifles. It appears that the Border Guards got to keep the fully automatic feature as well.

Much thanks to TFB reader Hrachya H. for the information and pictures!