I've sanded the finish off of whole stocks by hand and it doesn't take long.I do have a stock that I want to do some reshaping on that's gonna get hit pretty hard with a belt sander and then probably an orbital sander to get rid of the sanding marks. But I'll do the final sanding by hand.Usually 200 grit before staining.What kind of wood is it?
Staining beech is tricky. I've had good results and I ruined my Diana 45 stock with dark walnut stain. The 45 is now painted with bed liner aerosol paint. Beech blotches. That means it absorbs stain unevenly. The best results I've achieved with staining beech is to use a pre-stain wood conditioner before staining. There are lots of other methods for mitigating the blotching that have been written about here.