1949 Marlin 336 Refinish

[Sharps40]

And the new wood on the back is a pretty good color and grain match for the original wood on the front. Everything skinned into place with bedding so it won't move for years to come. Finish is leveled and polished to low luster, very warm and easy to touch, golds, reds and greens in the wood show thru. No stain on this wood, thats all natural color darkened slightly by application of Truoil.

Maintenance will be easy, Pledge or occasional Johnsons paste wax and a good buff with an old t-shirt.

White lines are white, edges of the stock do not round under the recoil plate (since it was sanded with the pad on) and the heavily scarred pistol grip cap polished up pretty well with 0000 wool and fff rubbing compound. The stock just needs the screws polished and blued but for now all the wood is well wrapped, stored in a heavy cardboard box and stowed away in a relatively dent free zone.

 

[Sharps40]

First polish, a worn 120 grit. All done initially with the palm sander to pull off the blue/brown finish. Now, the gun was overall brown, and had some very fine pitting on the receiver walls.

You can polish or file out most pits but often wind up with dished screw holes, waivy lines, etc. For light/fine pitting such as on these old guns its often best to just go with a 120 to 200 grit polish. Remember, the rust black is low luster anyway.

Compounding the issues, here is a gun with very shallow roll marking of every single word and number on the gun. Rather than transition from finally polished to less finely polished areas to preserve the markings, I plan to blend the entire gun to about a worn 150 grit finish, all by hand and all done with aluminum oxide paper. This keeps straight lines straight and no dished out screw holes or dovetail edges.

Now the waffle top has to be chemically cleaned or lightly wire brushed or you'll quickly grind off this unique feature of the early Marlin 336s. I used a wire brush to clean it out and worked up to the edges with the jitterbug.

In the final finish, one can either hand polish all the lines in one direction or for rust blue, leave the swirl marks in the metal from the jitter bug. Either way, they are not really noticable in the final finish because its not highly reflective. Just be consistent on all the parts for the best results. Different alloys can give different colors and you compound the problems with different strokes on the various parts. Consistency gives best results overall.

What you see in the pics below is not pitting but very course 120g jitterbug finish. More polish to follow and it will look much finer in the raw and just super in the black.

Now I have half a bottle of rust blueing and everybody is out of Pilkingtons. It should be more than enough but I'm never comfortable starting up with out a spare cause I occasionally spill stuff and make a real mess. Wish me luck.

 

[olchevy]

Wow this is coming along great!

I too must also Tip my hat to Mr. Steve!

Any of yall remember that custom remington 700 I had for sell a while back? He is the one that cut the barrel to 20" threaded it 5/8-24 and then fitted the break on to it...He really does an awesome job and is a great guy for those who cant do it themselves. And I saw some of his reblues they look better than brand new!

I refinished a 1972 Marlin 336 a while back, I was polishing to reblue but then just kept on polishing and the reciver and barrel are a mirror finish now after a few coats of oil now it has stayed almost stainless steel shiny for over two years now...Just an Idea.

Keep up the good work and keep us updated!

 

[Sharps40]

Glad the oil is working for you. If you want a coin finish look, matt clear baking laquer from Brownells is very durable and easy to apply. It gives a matt stainless appearance once all the blue is polished off, wears a long long time and no oil ever needed on the outside of the rifle.

 

[Sharps40]

And the barreled action and magazine tube is rusting away. I sure do love humid days in the South!!!! Final finish on the barrel was done in a wire brush. Another sanding or two would have just obliterated those lightly stamped letters. At least this way, they will be crisp and clear (and strangely enough, the factory rear sight dovetail cuts right thru some of the markings....better pics later.)

 

[Sharps40]

Three hours into the first rust on this old action. Talk about accelerated decrepitude. Good thing there is a nice black finish at the end of the tunnel.

 

[Sharps40]

Third boil and the color is coming up well on the action. 2 cycles of 24 hours and a cycle of 4 hours. Most importantly, the color is starting to blend, streaks and or spots are blending in to an overall even dark grey black. As you see, the finish to the metal will be quite nice for a 62 year old, we all have some skin damage at that age, but the face lift will look great and this is gonna be a real prize when done.

See the three plugs in the left action panel...the two left most plugs are screwed in. The right end plug is silver soldered. The screw in plugs are prefered, removeable, easier to plug and can be fitted tighter/less noticeable in the end. Silver solder will always always have a light silver outline of silver braze.

Overall, the plugs and the unfilled holes will hopefully serve as a reminder to refrain from butchery. Modifications are cool, just get them done well so they work right and last the life of the firearm.

 

[Sharps40]

Action reblue is complete, 5 rust, boil and card cycles total. The finish is velvety smooth and even. Dry its a deep grey black, with a bit of oil on the metal its soft black and rich. (White specs are not pits/flaws, they are reflections off the oil and bits of my oily wipeing rag)

I think this old gal is now, even before final blueing of all parts and assembly, the Cougar of the Marlins I've cleaned up. The skin ain't perfect but it sure looks fine now and its ready to be used. I'll sure be sad if this one sit around and never gets bumped in the woods, rained on in the stand and smeared on the barrel with the fresh blood of a deer or boar.

Small parts for the front end will be polished and touched up as needed with Birchwood Casey Super Blue while I wait for the Marbles Full Buckhorn Rear Sight and Brass Bead front sight to arrive.

Major action parts to receive additional rust blue will be at least the trigger tang and lever. Most everything else is screws/pins needing minor touch up and can be handled with Super Blue for a working rifle.

If I can, I'll get the forend on tonight and post up pics.

(Oh yeah, and I'll take a beating for this I'm sure, Gun Paint is for Sissies!)

 

[Patronus]

Man, your work is TOP NOTCH! I'm going to be picking up a 30AW in a couple of weeks, should I just ship it directly to you?

 

[Sharps40]

Mdog, I'm no ffl, ya gotta pick up a file and a saw and try it yerownself!

And...

There is background or mood music running thru my shop..."I'm too sexy for the safe, to sexy for the safe, too sexy to lounge in the safe."