Follow-up to "50 Years w/out a Savage 99" -- Question on Stocks...

[Old No7]

This is part of an exchange from my post down below ("Over 50+ Years Without...") concerning the woods stocks on the nice vintage 99 that I picked up recently. At the end of this, below, I'd like to get the forum's input on a couple of questions, if I may.

For what it's worth, you may want to re-think re-pointing and re-staining the stock. Maybe just a good cleaning with a soft toothbrush and a non-intrusive cleaner wax.

About your comments that I underlined above... Yes, I am rethinking the whole "restore checkering/refinish" idea; I might just keep the older/vintage finish and patina "as is", maybe cleaning it up, as you say, and possibly rubbing some oil into the forearm to see if that helps the woods colors match better. But I've checked again, and both pieces of wood have the receiver's serial # clearly stamped.

As noted, I was thinking about redoing the checkering of the stocks on this Savage 99, after I get the wood colors to be a better match, that is... Both pieces of wood are stamped with the same serial #, from the same stamps (it appears), so the stocks are factory originals -- but they don't match.

Here's what the stocks look like now, after being lightly rubbed with a gray synthetic scrub pad and some Murphy's Oil Soap. It's clear to see there was a lot of oil, dirt and grime on them that really darkened them up. And I have to admit, I do like the reddish tone in the buttstock, although I think there's some more oil/grime up near the action.







And as a reminder, here's how dark they were before they were cleaned up:



My twin has loaned me a set of checkering tools, but I've never done the work on a rifle; have only touched-up checkering on handgun grips. But as those diamonds are so flat or non-existent, I am a little concerned that I could make the checkering much worse -- instead of better... Or ruin the "vintage look and feel" to this Savage 99.

Questions I have for this forum are:

* If it was yours, would you lightly refinish the colors and keep it "vintage" (close-to) and the checkering untouched?

* Or, would you go ahead and lightly refinish, but also recut/repoint the checkering?

Thanks for looking, and for your thoughts!

Tight groups.

Old No7

[langenc]

Both the buttstock and the assembled rifle stock show signs of oil in the wood near the action.
That is caused by leaving oil from the bore run into the wood when the gun stands in the closet/safe from one use to the next.
It is prevalent on older guns. Run a couple dry patches thru the bore after the oil..before storage.

To answer your question--unless you have a good bit of experience, Id not mess with the checkering.

[Jeff518]

The checkering cutter could be a piece of hack saw blade instead of a v-cutter, to keep the original look (no diamonds)