Checkering

[jerrye]

Thanks!
Grip cap and butplate were 24 lpi, grip panels are 22 lpi.

FINE!! And FINE!! work.

[boblon]

That looks great.

There is no way I would attempt that. I get nervous cutting hinge mortises, let alone attacking an expensive, hard to replace fine piece of work like that.

My hats off to you.

BobL.

[Black wallnut]

That looks great.

There is no way I would attempt that. I get nervous cutting hinge mortises, let alone attacking an expensive, hard to replace fine piece of work like that.

My hats off to you.

BobL.

Thanks for all the kind words! It usually takes me at least 3 months to get up the courage to start on a stock of this quality of wood. This time I received the stock last Labor Day weekend and started the grip cap and butt plate soon there after. I started one grip panel just before Thanksgiving and finally compleated the other New Years Day. There are those that do lots more checkering than I and as such are much faster. I do not think I could ever do this as a living.

[drkg]

BW - That is very nice work indeed. Gunsmithing has been my mortgage-paying trade for the last seven years (nearly my whole adult/professional life) and checkering is not one of my strong points - but I know good checkering when I see it. You mentioned the stress of checkering a nice piece of wood, and that's something I have never overcome. When I was a kid, and gunsmithing was just a hobby, I LOVED checkering stocks and grips I made, but the very day I took it on as a career I lost my nerve for checkering (on wood that belongs to someone else) and now outsource that aspect of a project to someone who can do it better and faster than myself.

For everyone else, interested in learning to checker portions of their projects I recommend taking a deep breath and setting down for some practice. Start by marking knife handles or something else made from smal sections of inexpensive stock that you will not regret ruining your first few (dozen) attempts at, in some cases one misguided stroke will ruin the project. When I was apprenticing my mentor told me:

"A good gunsmith is not one who doesn't make mistakes, but rather one who can fix his own mistakes."

He later added:

"...except checkerers. Good checkerers don't make mistakes.....and can generally drink you and I under the table!!"

[Wood_workur]

looks great.

[Turaj]

Beautiful work Mark! Like others have said you have LOTS of patience!!! but the outcome is just great!

[ScottGolden]

I knew I was beyond my skill level when I looked at the tools in your link and thought yeah so how did those tools make that checkering.

Bless you but that came out fantastic.

Scott

[Black wallnut]

I knew I was beyond my skill level when I looked at the tools in your link and thought yeah so how did those tools make that checkering.

Bless you but that came out fantastic.

Scott

Believe it or not one line at a time!