About 4-5 years ago I bought a Dem-Bart Master kit to try my hand at checkering some stocks that I've made. I never got around to really working with it until about a month ago. I took a poor example of a stock that I'd made and finished and used for a short time and began to work with the cutters. My goal was to get a feel for the cutters and how they react to wood grain and how they work best. So far I've worked up about 6-7 patches of checkering working more to develop technique than to work a true pattern out start to finish. I wanted to post observations here for some of you guys who have developed a feel for this art can give some feedback. I'd like to throw some little bullet points out here for response. Based on some of my last patches of work I think that I can develop a knack for some simple checkering and have the pleasure of sprucing up some of my own work.

-It seems that if I keep the cutter head near 90 degrees to the face of the wood I get straighter lines.

-Convex surfaces are prone to add gain to the line spacing.

-American walnut is soft and seems prone to grain compression from the guide if too much pressure is applied.

-Hard maple will cause a bit of chatter but is more consistent to respond to the cutter head.

-Harder grain doesn't seem to be as prone to gain or loss on the pattern.

-There is a point at which you can easily degrade a nice pattern with attempts to make the pattern deeper. Not sure if this is compression of the diamond tip or not.

I can't think of other points of observation but am sure that more will come to mind. Please, comment of give advice. I'd really like to improve my skill at this. I'll mention that I'm using a 20LPI set.

Much thanks,
lc

Interesting reading. You made some of the same observations I have made - beginning almost 40 years ago. When laying your lines, try using a three line spacer without guide. Use two lines to track existing lines, and only cut one new line at a time. Makes a big difference. About checkering "soft" wood, when finishing a stock, use your finish - thinned by half - as a sealer. The finish will go into the wood and fill the pores to a greater than checkering line depth. Makes cutting fine diamonds a lot easier. When checkering maple, I lay the lines with a three line spacer, seal the existing work, take the lines to half depth, seal the checkering, and then take them to full depth. The end results is "fuzzless" diamonds. Oh, I normally use no larger than 24 lines per inch and most of my checkering is 26 and 28 lines per inch. You might try a book handled by Brownells, "Checkering for the Beginner" I put 40 years of experience in it when I wrote it.

Good luck.

Welcome Mr McGuire, and thanks for your post. I hope you will find this forum welcoming and will share your experience and tips often. I look forward to reading more of your contributions. Except for the occasional personality disagreements, most here are very interested in learning and sharing gun making information.

Roger

I will add two:

Dull tools will not only be harder to use, you will tend to make more errors as newby (e.g. wandering)

A heavy hand destroys good diamonds, A lighter consistent pressure is needed.

I am far from an expert, having ruined and started over a few times.

Bill, Brownells has it listed as: "Fundamentals of Gunstock Checkering".

The one greatest tip I could give may be a bit confusing; I have mentioned this before.

I do use three-line spacers. It is very important to lay out your master lines VERY straight. I got a tip a while ago about this from a very generous information-sharing gentleman.

Got to the hardware store and get a 1/2" replacement for a tape measure and cut off about 9" of it. It is flexible enough to wrap around most surfaces; if too long, use one about 3-4"; you should have enough.

This is the one that gets a bit confusing; don't do your spacing "uphill". When spacing on a curved surface, always keep the two guide rows on the uphill side of the checkering pattern. This will keep thethird line to follow the others. If you do it uphill, the third line will have a tendency to wander. When extending your lines past your previous line, use the straight edge guide to make sure the line stays parallel with the pattern.

One other thing, to avoid overruns, approach your borders slowly, push your tool to the line and pull the cutter away from the border.

The tip about keeping the cutter perpendicul;ar to the work surface is also valid.

Jim

There was a pretty good thread on checkering a while back. Let me see if I can dig it up...

Found it:
http://forums.accuratereloadin...101056641#2101056641

Great tips. Thanks.

I did experiment with pressure and light was better. Being a bit impatient I had to force myself to slow down. My last patch was the best so far but it was across end grain.

Do you find the checkering cutters to be as fickle to grain direction as a chisel or does this matter less because of the finish build up neutralizing grain end response?

Do you find checkering across the end grain of a butt to be easier than the grip where grain direction can divert the cutter?

lc