I am looking for good photos showing the details of a checkering pattern that was used on the higher grade Winchester Model 12 and the Mpdel 42.

There were basically two - the "A" carved and the "B" carved patterns. The B pattern is the more ornate while the A is, to my eye a little classier, especially for the smaller Model 42.

Photos of the B pattern are all over but I can't find a photo of the A pattern -- any help would be appreciated.

Is this it?

http://www.americanrifleman.or...inchestermodel12.jpg

It is a little hard to tell but it looks just like the standard basic checkering pattern

How about this one?

http://www.gunsinternational.c...cfm?gun_id=100714949

That is some serious looking wood but the checkering is the standard one.

Most of the 42's engraved by Angelo Bee have "B" checkering which was the most orhate offered by Winchester and various stockmakers have made small changes to the basic design.

The A checkering was a bit less ornate than the B but I think it's more elegant on the smaller stocks of the 42s but unfortunately their are some stockmakers who do almost the same pattern and call it B grade.

The A carved pattern layout and the B carved layout cover nearly the same area on the stock and have the same shape including the extra 'sweep' behind the grip portion onto the butt stock.
They both have the ribbons crossing through the patterns in the same areas.

What makes them different is that the B carved has the fluer de lies in the pattern.
The A carved has none.

The A carved has instead simple small, shallow 'peaks' in the border pattern where the fluers would be.
The exception would be the front end of the forend on the M12/42 A carved pattern where they incorporated a long 'point' style to the pattern.

Fluer-de-lies = B carved
....Same looking pattern but no fluer de-lies = A carved.

The area around the fluers was stippled instead of checkering right up to the carved lines. Straight grip guns had a slight variation from pistol grip guns to the butt stock pattern of course but it followed the same idea of the main difference betw the two

There are pictures of the 2 patterns from Winchester photos in Swings Winchester 42 book. I believe they also appear in the Model 12 book.

do these help?

http://www.currygunstocks.com/checkering.html

scroll to the bottom of this guys checkering page,,it's a pretty good representation of the Winchester A carved pattern'

The pattern is missing the small peak in the border line along the grip cap. The 'sweep' checkered area behind the grip area is placed a little too low IMO from the standard pattern. You can see the use of the 'point style' checkering pattern on the front of the forend which is a change from the B carved pattern all together.
A little rigid, but a good representation and gives you a good idea of what an A-Carved pattern is.