Marlin stock finish

I have a Marlin 1894C that has some scratches in the stock. Does anyone know how their stocks are finished? I'd like to avoid using the wrong finish on a few scratches.

Jim

I'm pretty sure they have used different things over the years, what year is your gun. is the finish gloss or dull?
I have a couple that could stand to be refinished and was thinking of just getting a big bottle of tru oil.
I have one that was pretty bad looking and stripped it down and used linseed oil and it now looks oil finished, not quite like an original 60's marlin finish.
but the linseed oil finish is not offensive either.

Since the mid seventies at least, Mariln used a proprietary finish that they called Marshield, I believe. Truthfully, I think it is some sort of tinted varnish or polyurethane. It always seemed like it was a surface finish, as opposed to a stain then varnish finish to me.

Good luck finding a complete match. Maybe someone on the Marlin Owners website has a better idea.

Robert

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Marshield is a polyutherane based finish - stripper didn't touch the finish on a few I tried, and I had to resort to sanding the stock down to bare wood, then staining/finishing after any repairs.

OTOH, a few late 1940's rifle I've done responded very well to using Formby's Furniture Refinisher (google), then staining/finishing.

For a few small scratches, I'd just disappear them with a matching stain on a Q-tip, quickly wiped off & repeated as req'd.

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All the ones I've done I used Jasco Paint Stripper and the stuff came off nearly instantly. The first one I did, I literally scrapped the goo off. Too much work!!! marlin 1894 CB shown below.

You will be amazed at the amount of Character they can cover up with Marshield ! Don't try to fix it, just get rid of it and stain it to your liking and then either do a Birchwood-Casey Oil Finish or Minwax Helmsman Polyurethane spray which works super good.

I'm in the middle of a BC Oil finish on a stock I paid alot for and it is going OK, but not nearly as fast as the Helmsman spray which goes on so fine you can't hardly screw it up!!!

Here's some pics. The first two are my 1894 CB None of the character showed thru the Marshield! It shows thru the Tru-Oil finish now adn I get complements everytime I take it out.!

Both the other stocks were done with the Min-Wax Helmsman Poly Finish. Believe me it is much easier to do it than an oil finish. I shot both pieces on the A5 with a very fine coat every 2 hours for a total of 8 coats. Took 2 days because I was curing it in the heater closet. Came out perfect. There was some prep work involved but nothing that bad. I taped all the checkering off so it wouldn't get filled up.

If you are willing to spend some time and elbow grease you can make your guns look really nice and it ain't that hard to do. The Birchwood Casey Kits come with everything you need to do a first rate job and they even have Excellent Instructions that lead you thru the process.

Get bold and do something nice, plenty of oohs and aahs waiting for you here.

Randy

citri strip and minwax antique oil. then johnson's paste wax.

If you are just repairing a scratch or two, I wouldn't do a complete refinish. Maybe a little stain and a little finish. Just put a dab of finish on and wipe it off fairly soon with with palm of your hand. You can even use an oil finish. Remember, you can add oil finish on top of a poly, but not the reverse.
Phil

Today I masked off the steel and sprayed a couple of coats of Minwax semi gloss Helmsman from an aerosol can on it. The finish looks a lot better. The scratches must have been superficial because they are now gone.

Jim

Marshield is pretty tough stuff. I find Birchwood Casey Tru-Oil is a pretty close match if you can buff it just right.

I have used TruOil thinned 50/50 with mineral spirits or paint thinner to overcoat rifles of different brands and ages (so a range of different finishes) and found it to be compatible with every one it was used on. When cut back it goes on in very thin coats that don't need to be worked at all between coats or after the final coat to have a smooth finish and just a few coats over an existing finish makes a difference. Much easier than a complete refinished to cover nicks and scratches.