Sporterizing fun

targa911S · 04-05-2010, 04:24 PM

I found old Marlin M25 in the shop the other day so I asked the guys if I could buy it. they said yeah $75.00. Sold. The action was great and it had an old school Weaver scope on it. The wood was beat.

I started playing with it and stripped the paint like finish off the cheapo birch stock. Then I was looking around my shop and I had a couple chunks of walnut laying around and the LOP was short so I added an inch or so onto the buttstock. Then I found this great piece of burl walnut and thought i could add a cool tip too. Now I had two hunks of walnut glued to either end. Today I ground and sanded the whole thing down to shape and cut the barrel groove.

Finished sanding and then wiped with alcohol then buffed with steel wool. Then a light maple oil stain.

Tomorrow more wool and maybe a second coat of stain. On this one I'm going to use poly instead of tung oil for durability.

More tomorrow.

rouxroux · 04-05-2010, 04:45 PM

Wow! That is (already is) going to look GREAT!!!!!!

targa911S · 04-05-2010, 04:55 PM

Thanks. I'm warming up for my Mannlicher project. I figured I would do some of the things I want to do on that project here. Better on a POS $75 gun than screw up a $150.00 piece of quilted maple I have set aside for the long stock. I hope it won't turn black when I hit it with the poly. I hate birch, it's just ugly wood.

EarlyPorsche · 04-05-2010, 05:08 PM

Looks good! I would go much darker though. How about a cherry stain to bring out the grain on the darker wood but also give some color to the light stuff. Dark woods on guns always look so high end. Love it!

targa911S · 04-05-2010, 05:13 PM

I agree. I did it once with cherry and because birch is such crap wood and very porous on the end grain those area sucked it in too much and it was blotchy. I stripped it again and thought I might try a lighter stain to avoid the dark spots. Still got some as you can see, but not as bad. It just looks like patina. The Mannlicher project will be clear quilted maple and I will use strong tea to stain it just a little bit to bring out the quilting.

Joeaksa · 04-05-2010, 05:27 PM

Very nice work!

RPKESQ · 04-05-2010, 05:36 PM

Hey Buddy, try some grain sealer on the dark sections before you stain the light sections. First blend the grain lines into each other in the buttstock with a brown perminate marker pen. Selectively stain with a small 1/8th inch camel hair brush. With a little work you can make the two woods in the buttstock match pretty well from 4 - 5 feet away.

It is great practice for those expensive sidelock stock repair jobs!

Post pictures of your results!

targa911S · 04-05-2010, 05:45 PM

Sidelocks arrrgh. Done a few of those. Not easy stuff. So many angles to be concerned with. Even lowly Crescents are trouble. Thanks for the tips.

on2wheels52 · on2wheels52's Garage

Yeah, yeah, your wood work looks great. I'm more impressed with you getting the thing for $75. I'd have gotten $125 w/o the scope. Did you have incriminating photos or something?
Jim

targa911S · 04-06-2010, 03:59 AM

Hey Jim, On occasion, I do work for the guys in this shop. Some on site some not. I guess they were trying to get a better deal on that next repair.

on2wheels52 · on2wheels52's Garage

Ah, a kinfolk deal as we say. I was afraid folks would be showing up and wanting to know why I'm asking so much for mine.
Jim

targa911S · 04-06-2010, 05:11 AM

Tell em it's that much because it's yours. Actually I think that's a fair price. They had a tag on this one for $90.00, and the finish was really bad.

Dueller · 04-06-2010, 07:55 AM

Targa...I have an old Stevens/Savage double barrel 12 ga. Nothing special...just a cheap old gun. But it was my first "adult" gun given to me by my dad when I was about 12 y.o. and I still use it for quail hunting from time to time. lIt has a cheap stock that I finished when I was about 15 or so.

I want to replace the stock/fore end with a nice oil rubbed walnut or some other such wood. No fancy checkering or anything like that. You have any suggestions on where to buy one...someplace you could recommend that wouldn't require a huge amount of fitting/refinishing?

Thanks.

targa911S · 04-06-2010, 08:49 AM

Send it to me. I will email you the name and a copy of the license of an FFL that takes work for me. I would like to send it directly to you so home email please. I'll send you pics of some of my SXS I've done so you know it's going to the right place. I have done about 30 of those, and I 'm doing one right now. Just send it. I'll take care of you buddy. It will take about 6 weeks to complete. You won't regret this.

best,
David