Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Birch Stock Refinishing (Marlin 336W)

After much internet (and soul) searching I decided to refinish the stock/forearm on my 336W. I dug for hours on end & suprisingly found very little info and/or help on a decent way of doing it. Everybody out there is all over the standard walnut & a few others but not a lot of info for birch. I had an idea of what I wanted & how I wanted it afterward & just couldn't find what I wanted in an aftermarket stock.
Before we get too far along with a "dive right in" project, I will state that I have been repairing & building firearms for about 20 years so think it over & be prepared before you start. It ain't a 1/2 hour job & you need to have an idea of the inner workings of your rifle & some idea of the properties of the wood you're working on ahead of time.
I had decided that the grip area of the stock & the forearm on my rifle were a little on the fat side so I wanted to slim both down & remove the checkering to get it back closer to the profile of the 70's Marlin 30-30 of my childhood & refinish in a dark walnut with a satin finish.

Starting out with the factory finish. I never did like the orange/brown finish of the original. Looks like a kindergarten project done with cheap spray stain. Wood is supposed to be warm & cozy, not this:

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As I said, I wanted to remove the checkering & re-shape the forearm so I started with a flat rasp & gently cut the checkering& tip down to level wood. This gave me a depth to work with as I shaped the forearm.

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This is a slow process & rightly so. Take a little, check it, take a little, check it.... Don't go too deep, easy to take away, impossible to grow back. GO SLOW!

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After working down one side completely I flipped it & did the other side. Keep flipping side to side & keep the angles & depth the same so it comes out uniform. It's very easy to end up with a lop-sided stock.

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After finishing both sides work the bottom & blend your contours to even everything out.

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The front of the forearm at the barrel band is kind of clunky & just ends in a square corner & drops off so I wanted to blend it into a smooth transition. I marked around the stock to keep the taper uniform & slowly started taking away material until I had what I wanted.

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Halfway through the taper. Finished taper on the left & factory square corner on the right. Looks very nice when all is done & much more of a "finished" look instead of just the spot where the cutter stopped at the factory.

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After shaping everything up & getting the general shape it's time for a lot of gentle sanding. Take it as you will but I highly recommend using a sanding block. Working corners & flats by hand will leave uneven spots & uniform corners & contours are much easier & controlled with a block.
I did a little shaping with 220 grit & worked down to 600 finish paper before staining. At this point we're two coats of dark walnut into things & about two more to go.

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Re-shaped, sanded, stained & ready for final finish. When I finish the stock I'll decide on exactly what I want to do about final protective finish but I'm figuring on several coats of Tru-Oil in a hand rubbed finish. There's a lot of work on the bench right here but I'm pleased with the difference in a crappy looking factory lick & a promise job versus what I ended up with. It is much more to my liking in both color & the final shape.

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As I stated before, have a good idea of what you want to end up with before you start, take your time & have fun! Hope this helps someone out there or maybe even inspires somebody else to revive one of these great little rifles!

Nice job. Will you re-cut the checkering? I too like a good rasp for shaping. May I suggest treating yourself to nice Nicholson #49 cabinetmaker's rasp? Once you try one you'll never go back!

Nicely done!

Ed

I have always hated those fat forearms on the Marlins. I completelty restocked my 94 and now ot looks like a 94. Those fat forearms not only detract form a nice clean look but ruin the ability to have flat sided lever that goes into a scabbard easily and feels like you have a log under your leg.

I'll look into the Nicholson rasp. I have about 15 or so of different types & teeth that belonged to my grandfather. Had a lot of use over the years & I hope a lot more to come. I've done some stock refinishing over the years & most recently custom carving (I'll try to post a few pics) but there's always a little trick or tool that makes things faster or better so thanks for the heads up.

+1 on the fat forearms & the almost round grips. Never have thought they looked right & are far from comfortable to the shooter. I've returned to an old affliction of leverguns & look forward to tinkering with some of the many I have recently come across.

Nice, might have to try that with a 336 birch stock I have in a box

If you had used a pre-stain/ sealer you wouldn't have the color variations that make birch look like crap . Instead of light grain , dark grain , it will be much more evenly colored . Seriously , try some Min-Wax pre stain next time , you'll be glad you did !

That looks really nice.

I have an old 336SC that could use such treatment. I have always liked the Model '94's feel a lot better than the Marlin's.

I may have a winter project now!!

Here is a Marlin 44 mag , Model 94 that I completely restocked myself to get rid of the fat forearm. The recoil pad is due to a bad shoulder and the small scope is 2-6x for my failing eyes. It has killed elk though without the scope.

Not much figure to the walnut,but it comes from oneo f several planks that my brother cut about 20 years ago and air dried in the rafters of his shop. No stain or coloring. Finish is acombo of Min Wax Helsman spar varnish and tung oil. About 20 coats.

Sanding past 320 is a waste of time on birch too. Once the grain size of your paper exceeds the size of the pores in TE wood you're just burnishing it an it can affect staining.

Only good thing minwax makes is a wood hardener for pinky stuff.

Your sanding sealer should be zinsser seal coat or another of the sort

All of my stains are from "general finishes". You'll throw up when you use minwax after using the gf stuff.

It looks nice but there were some unnecessary steps in there

I agree about the #49. Has a lot of uses

I have used a lot of Generals Armor-Seal and it is a tung oil/ polyurethane product. The spar varnish mixed with tung oil is more durable,but the polyurethane is more water proof,but softer.All depends what one wants.I'm into durability as my rifles ride in a scabbard more than most.

What the heck is pinky stuff?

Punky. My phone thinks it knows what I want to say better than I do.

Know exactly how that feels.I usually have to go over any of my post three times, just to get them readable.

Glad I got this started as I'm picking up a little more stuff as we go. I'm as bad as anyone to get stuck in the rut of what worked before so I'll just do that again. I've got several broken/cracked stocks to put some of this info to good use practicing on so thanks to all who have thrown ideas out there.

I was gonna post a few pics of stock carving I've done here but reckon it'll be better on a seperate post.

Don't try dying birch with aneline(sp) dye,it doesn't take evenly.I've read about using shelac as a prestain,evens it out,but haven't done it.

So what is the latest on this project skullmonkey? Did you ever finish the stock, and did you decide to rechecker? What made you decide to go with the early american stain color rather than a more common gun wood color?