Diy checkering

[Any Cal.]

Hello,

I am interested in playing with stock checkering, but have more tools than money. Looking for pics or good descriptions of some checkering tools to perhaps build a couple of my own. Any leads or links?

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I have a set of "beginner" Dembart tools, like these. I have yet to really spend much time with them, but the little practicing I did, I could tell these are good tools, but I need lots more practice.



https://www.woodcraft.com/products/d...FQiHaQodURID3g

[Any Cal.]

Pic is perfect, but price isn't bad either...

Does each little rib take off a tiny bit more material, our are they for stabilizing the tool?

[joatmon]

I THINK you start with a single then one point of a double rides in a previous cut
Aaron

[Bmi48219]

I bought a beginner's set from Herters 50 years ago. Think it was made by Dem-Bart too. One tool handle and several cutters. They came with a bunch of small brads, you would pin the cutter head into the tool handle arm with a brad & bend it over to lock the cutter in. Joatmon is correct on the use of double cutters. The width, point to point of cutters on the double row determines the # of lines per inch. If you want 14 rows of checker diamonds per inch you need a double cutter head made for that spacing.
i practiced on a piece of black walnut molding, not knowing my dad was refinishing it for the dining room. Luckily I honed my skills on the back side of the molding. The people that own the house now probably have no idea they own a priceless work of craftsmanship.

[Reg]

Get the book Checkering And Carving Of Gunstocks by Kennady
and study it well

[pietro]

Does each little rib take off a tiny bit more material, our are they for stabilizing the tool ?

Think of the checkering tool head as a v-shaped file, with the back/forth motion wearing down a single groove into the wood.

The first thing anybody who wants to checker a gunstock needs is patience (and a steady hand).

The second is a lot of practice - checkering flat practice boards is NOTHING like checkering rounded gun stocks.

The third thing is to make a checkering cradle (google: gunstock checkering cradle).

Besides the single line tool, for the checkering job to look even a little professional, one of any of the various line spacing (18lpi, 22lpi, whatever) checkering tools should be chosen, so that all the lines of checkering will be evenly spaced. (all spacing tools have one non-cutting side, which runs in the previously-cut line to act as a guide)

Advanced checkering involves using a third checkering tool, the w i d e spacing tool, to make skip-line checkering (google).

It's best to start the job with a checkering panel pattern, cut from a piece of white paper (thinner than copy paper is better), so a pattern appropriate for the particular stock undergoing surgery can be chosen - with an eye toward overall size, and outline/shape.

After the checkering pattern is chosen & made, it's outline is traced upon the (finished) wood.

Once the pattern is "on" the stock, and the size/postion is acceptable, the two base lines of checkering (from which every line grows) should be laid out within the pattern, with the two lines crossing at an angle which would make a diamond of the proper shape when extended (check on a piece of paper first) - see below for the customary ratio for stock checkering diamonds of any size.

The single line tool is used to cut the two base lines, a little at a time, then the spacing tool head is used to start the adjacent line of checkering - which can be deepened (a little at a time) with either the spacing tool's cutting head, or switching back to the single line tool.

Care must be taken to not hurry, or allow the tool head(s) to extend the line being checkered beyond the borderlines. (the border is cut last, to "clean up" any over-runs)

Wood stain (if desired) and stock finish is then rubbed into the finished checkering with a Dollar Store (aka: disposable) toothbrush.


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[Any Cal.]

Hmmm. Thank you for the nice pointers. Gives me plenty to consider before jumping into it.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I still use a holder I made from square hard brass rod and a file handle. If the slot is pinched narrow enough to grip by sprint tension, you don't actually need the crosspin. That simplifies turning the cutter around to pull instead of push sometimes. The template is easily made from thick paper or drinks can aluminium. There is no worthwhile way of making cutters like Dem-Barts's, though, unless your hobby is making checkering cutters. They will become blunt with a lot of use, and bluntness makes for mistakes. I don't know any way of sharpening them.

The most important cutter is the kind with one toothed V and the other untoothed, as a guide. It is quite important to use it to mark each line shallow, from a shallow line. If you try to cut deep aligned with shallow, or shallow aligned with deep, you can easily upset the spacing. An all-toothed cutter, with anything from one to three toothed V-lines, is the kind to use for deepening them. In fact a triangular file, smaller than the usual saw-sharpening file, will do this job. A riffler, or curved file, is extremely good, but expensive.

It is a good idea to make your pistol-grip just a shade more convex than you really want, to give you room for an error. If you succeed in a good checkering job but find the grip a little bulbous, you can always reduce it to flat topped diamonds with the slightest trace of the lines left, and start deepening again with the most difficult part already done.

Some people think borderless checkering looks cruder than panels edged with a round bead, but it is actually more difficult to do well. A tiny V-gouge can be useful, but those for wood-carvers I have seen on the market are too big, perhaps not to make the cut, but to see clearly where you are doing it. I made my own, a frail little thing in an engraver handle, but you will never need to hit it with a mallet.

[w5pv]

Get the ole Kbar and a 3 cornered file and start practicing after a while you will get better and graduate to real tools.

[44man]

I bought my tools from Brownell's years ago. I never use a border. My first practice was a flat hunk of walnut, tore it to shreds. Forget that! I made the cradle to fix to my seat and drew a pattern on a stock I made for a .22 WW smooth bore. Not a single mistake. I went on to checker many custom stocks. You CAN sharpen a cutter. On the sides with a ceramic stone. All of my cutting is to pull back, never pushing. You have no control pushing.
First cuts on the border and the angle is with a sharp knife. It is the groove the cutter rides in.
Now and then you need a "V" cutter but none you buy cut. I made mine on the ends of triangle files.
You need to rotate the stock so the cutter is always 90° to the stock. It is why you need a cradle. One of my stocks.
I have checkered some with punky wood on one side. Soft junk. Soak with super glue. Then a lost diamond here and there from poor wood. Stain epoxy and pile it a little. Cut again and you have the diamond back. You will never find the fix. The harder the wood the better. First picture is my first and second is a better look at my second. Cherry, took the cutters like a champ. Carving done with home made "V" cutters.
You start at a game that will scare the pants off you when someone brings a $300 hunk of wood and a rifle to you.

[Mk42gunner]

I played around with checkering tools enough to know that I will need a lot of practice to get good at it.

I will second the suggestion to get and read Monte Kennedy's book, it is a bit dated, but the basics are there. The basic set of DemBart tools is a bargain.

Get one of the magnifying optivisors, your eyes will thank you. One of the old style desk lamps that articulate would be a good investment; you need good lighting, and the ability to throw shadows on the diamonds can't hurt.

Robert

[flounderman]

I learned most of what did, the hard way. Years later, I found out the cutter heads should be put in the handle to cut on the pull stroke. I did all of mine, the wrong way. Now that I think about it, it should have been obvious, but nobody told me and this was 55 years ago. 18 lines to the inch is a good spacing. Skip line saves time, carbide heads stay sharp longer, have a handle for each head, make a diamond pattern for the angles, so you have the same angles and don't end up with square diamonds. You should have a single and a double cutter, right and left cutter, short cutter for small spaces, and the long one to straighten a line that wandered. Kennedys book would have been a great teacher, if I would have read it before I ever picked up a tool. If you want to checker, you should read the book first.

[Reverend Recoil]

Purchase or make yourself a checkering cradle. You cannot cut good gunstock checkering without one. Checkering cradle plans are in Monty Kennedy's book, Checkering And Carving Of Gunstocks.

[oldracer]

Since I live in Southern CA I ended up buying my checkering and also barrel channel scrapers from a company named Gunline in Brea CA. I went to several hardwood and exotic wood suppliers in the San Diego area and bought a bunch of hardwood scraps, mainly walnut and maple to practice on. Since I have some pretty severe arthritis in my hands, arms and other joints I had to figure how much I could do without things starting to go bad. Generally it was about an hour or so and found I could work an hour then take 2 or 3 off to rest my body parts. I also found that it took me a while to learn to not press too hard with the tools or to let them do the work.