Thanks Rick for your advice.  The Stevens is a 47- 44 1/2, the buttstock is quite dark and I am considering lightly cleaning it so hopefully the grain in the wood will be more visible, and lighten the wood posssibly without ruining the finish. The rifle is a parts gun with the barrel non matching,a 22 LR barrel that I have had for awhile. The buttstock isn't original to the rifle either. I just ordered the forend from CPA,so it will be some time before it gets delivered.

I did see your reply about the N35, thanks.
BTW,the stock is much darker than it appears in the picture.

You may want to clean the buttstock from years of oils wiping and body and general dirt etc. Old guns like furniture with age darken and conceal the woods beauty. 

I use an old technique that I know won’t damage even the finest finishes. Takes some elbow grease but if you can get the ingredients here it is. Often rubbing across the grain initially helps to strip the crud faster but always finish up with the grain. 

Mineral oil
Turps ( turpentine ) but real distilled turps not the phony EPA crap
Light pumice or rotten stone.
Either 000 steel wool or “ MicroMesh cloth about 8000 grit.

Start with small cup, tuna can etc 1/2” mineral oil, 1/2 “ or less turps. Wet out steel wool or Micro-weaver and go at it a couple minutes not too hard.  Wipe loose crud off with lint free cloth. Get  all you can off.  Add pumice or rotten stone to oil turps to make light slurry paste and continue along grain. Wipe clean repeat and you’ll notice the luster and color returning. On checkering use a tooth brush but those electric one really work fast. Keep wiping cleanl

This is old school and you’ll have hunt down the turps and pumice/rotten stone but the results are worth it

Rick

Not to be argumentative but if you decide to strip the buttstock please stay away from acetone. Yes it will break down the surface skin of varnish, lacquer or any polyurethane finishes but it’s a solvent much too strong and aggressive for a gun stock or any piece of furniture with a fine finish. It’s very hot, dries faster than any other ketone solvent so you need to continually work to keep it wet. But the big problem is that with stains that are oil in nature or gun cleaning solvents then acetone breaks it down almost into component parts and drives it deeper into the wood. Stains that are locked into the surface now become solvent based liquids, just like wood stains. You want to pull the stains out not dissolve them to penetrate deeper. 

Whiting works but acetone is the wrong vehicle x 10. Plus you can end up with a bleached or light spots that you’ll need to address for color uniformity. One last thing about acetone is that if wetted out long enough it will break down the wood’s lignin or the grain binders. People who use acetone solvents on wood eventually find the grain becomes more porous and staining becomes very splotchy so heavy sealer or wash coats are necessary

Just my opinion
Rick

Me too Vall. Just finishing one up now. The other thing I do after soaking the stock in acetone is I use a razor blade to scrap off what finish may be left. Then light sanding before doing all the min-wax finishes including filling the pores.