I have a nice laminated stock on a .458 Lott. It does not have any checkering and as a result, it tends to slip a bit occasionally causing my middle finger to get rapped by the trigger guard. I am thinking about having the stock checkered and my gunmaker has not done a laminated stock before. I would think a somewhat course checkering with a double boarder would be fine. Are there any special concerns in checkering a laminated stock? Advise from those who have done this would be appreciated. Thank you.

I haven't ever checkered a laminate however I have handled a few. Most were "hairy" but seemed to work. I have heard that the glue used to laminate can be hard on cutters.

don't go finer than 20 lpi. Even at that, many diamonds will just pop off in the checkering process. It i sjust the neture of the beast with a laminated stock. I repair the chckering by puttying the area up with epoxy, filing it down the next day, and cutting through the new epoxy. You can't find the lost diamonds after doing this.

I have only done one and one more to do for a different guy. I sincerely hope that will b emy last, as I would rather work with full fiddle back Claro than mess with laminated again.

I've had two laminates. They were checkered 18 line per inch. This makes for a good grip,even in inclimate weather.

18 lines per inch will raise the knap on certain
types of gloves, but certainly this is preferrable to a difficult to control 458?

Wasn't too long ago factory checkering was at 18 lpi, if I remember correctly? And it looks much better on a laminate than it would on walnut.

Regards,

Don

You can "fill" the wood-space to be checkered with your thinnest crazy-glue. It will be hard on the cutters, but save your diamonds.

Kathy Forster did two for me, one on a 416 Taylor and the other on a matching 9.3x62. She dosen't ever want to do that again.

Thanks for the insight. I was planning on replacing his cutter for this job as I suspected it would be hard on it. 18 per inch sounds like it will work. Also I thought the style could be early english (course with flat topped diamonds as seen on 17th and early 18th century guns). This should give enough "grip" to resist the slipping during recoil. When the checkering is completed, would it help to preserve the checkering to brush the area with super glue to seal and strengthen the diamonds?

i've had carol at ahlmans to a couple, but i used 16 lines. while fine checkering is nice to look at the coarse stuff grabs the hands better. a plain pattern only costs about 50 from her and another 25-50 on top of that really does a deluxe type job

Our stock guy did my .375 in a Boyds laminated stock. He applied the finish first and then did the checkering.

Bob said he could tell the difference in the feel of the woods but once he got use to it, there was no problem.

If I remember correctly, the lines are either 20 or 22 lpi. Very sharp and crisp with no fuzzing.

If someone can post photographs here, I will send a few shots if interested. This stock looks great.

Sam

eclemmons@hotmail.com

[url="http://www.hunt101.com/?p=399919&c=500&z=1"] [/url]

this is the Ahlmans $50 checkering job, they charge another $25 for laminates. I finished the stock with thinned epoxy before the checkering, and then sealed the checkering with the same thinned epoxy and used a fine steel brush to remove the gloss and fuzz in the checkering.

bigger res pic here http://www.hunt101.com/img/399919-big.jpg