I am considering restocking a rifle, and doing most of the work myself. I have been pleasantly surprise how affordable a good semi-finished stick of walnut is. I would have the bedding done by a 'smith, but would do the final shaping, sanding, sealing, filling myself.

The biggest thing, in my mind, is whether or not I could do the checkering. I don't like any kind of fanciness here, just good, 22 lpi checkering in a classic point pattern.

*Note: I have never done any rifle stock work. I have worked with tools for many years, and have done some furniture making.

Is checkering something a beginner can do? Is it done before the stock is sealed, or after all the sealing/filling is finished?

What does the average 'smith charge for bedding a 99% inletted stock? For checkering? What should a XXX or Exhibition grade semi-finished stock cost?

Any opinions on type of wood? Claro, English, American? The rifle will be a 7x57, which I want to stock in the "old classic" style, and be light, short, and handy.

Trademark

English is "usually" the best wood to work with.

You should be able to checker the stock yourself. Just know that it requires a meticulous mindset to do a competent job. AND, you should know that your first checkering job might not be completely up to snuff.

There are many ways to start the checkering job. I have found that I prefer to get all of the sanding completed and then layout all of the borders (possible) and the master lines and cut to about quarter depth. From there complete the finishing and go back and cut your borders and master lines to half depth and begin your checkering.

Were I you, I would invest in Monty Kennedy's book of checkering. It is a bit dated in regards to contemporary checkering styles, but it is the bible for explaining the checkering process.

finishing the stock is the easy part..

checkering, at least for me, is generally best paid out. I recently bought a checkering head, and will be learning how. I expect in 6 to 8 months I could successfully duplicate the mediocere results seen on cz 550s simplests patterns.

jeffe

Texan,
When Scrollcutter says"your first checkering job might not be completely up to snuff." he is making an understatement. Everybodies first attempt looks like crap. If you are only doing one stock, it may be cheaper to farm it out. If you want to learn a new skill, Kennedy's book is good, but you may also want to get Joe Balickie's video sold through Brownell's. Your first attempt should be on someone else's gun, someone you don't really like.
Best of luck on your project.

Buy some cheap take off stocks and practice. Cut in your checkering them sand it all out and start again. You can rechecker and sand a forend about 30 times before you turn it into a pencil. After about 200 hours you will learn to appreciate a nice smooth stock or you will pay someone else to do it.

Checkering is probably the hardest part of stockmaking. You can do everything else perfect and screw up on the last few minutes of checkering. You can fix some checkering errors some are just major screw ups that will not go away. Your first one will look like a disaster.

I have attached a photo that I took today and emailed to some friends. The checkering was done by Gary Goudy, probably one of the best at this art who ever walked on two feet. The rifle is a joint effort by a group of us that were friends of the late Maurice Ottmar. Maurice started building this rifle and we are finishing it for him. The rifle will be auctioned off on this site and the proceeds will be going to his widow. All of us have donated our labor and materials to see this to completion. More on the rifle on another post but the point I wanted to make is that this is an example of checkering at it's finest. You do not have to do something elaborate to do a good or even outstanding job. If you do decide to tackle the checkering, practice on some old cast off stocks first and then weigh the cost of one of the specialist that do this for a living and the possiblity of messing up all the time and money you have in the rifle to that date. One thing I would add regarding wood choice is that given the odds of normal wood, English is by far the wood of choice and the best to checker (and to shape, inlet and finish). Claro is the worst, followed closely by Western Maple. It tends to be brittle and punky and will not take as fine a checkering as English. I have had some Claro that were contrary to my statement but in general it is true. It is very pretty and at times so much so that I look for the place to put the batteries to light it up. Also buy the best blank you can afford. You will be surprised how good your first stock turns out and if you go cheap on the wood you will forever regret it.

I assume by "bedding" you meant you want a stockmaker to do the inletting. Boyds or Wenig or any of the many duplicator operators can do that for you. What I would suggest is that you build a pattern and glass your metalwork into that pattern and get the shape where you want it and then send that pattern in with the blank and have it duplicated. If it was me, there is only one duplicator on the market that will give you a near one to one stock product with any regularity and that is a Hoenig. Find someone who uses one of those and send the work to him. Any of the others using a Northstar or a Dakota can either end up costing the difference in inletting or create gaps that will just make the final product second rate.

If you want to discuss by phone with me, my # is on my web site.

This stock is Turkish Walnut, the same species as English, French, California English, Australian etc. They are all Juglans Regia but grown in different areas. There is a distinction between Black Walnut and Claro (California Walnut) as they are a different species.





[ 10-30-2003, 05:26: Message edited by: Customstox ]

Checkering can be learned by anyone, heh!! I learned it.. just took a few years.. I fully finish the wood before the layout. I create the layout on paper and transfer it to the wood using an exacto knife. Tried pounce wheels and points to transfer the pattern but the knife blade is used 'with' the line of the pattern so blends right in. Claro is a beautiful wood, not as good to work as English but nice to look at for the bucks.. How the wood was handled is more important than wood species. I've a beautiful piece of english in the shop that's light as a feather.. It was most likely kiln dried to soon after harvest and the woods cell structure destroyed. I also have some air dried claro(full of fiddleback and feathered crotch) that feels like granite. The claro is in the form of 2 piece stocks and I've a '71 winchester I'm going to restock.. Buy Kennedies book. It will show you what was and how it was done. What will be you get to decide..

I really do appreciate all the time spent answering this question. I will certainly have to give it some thought.

I know this is a "depends" question, but what can I expect to pay for a good checkering job. Remember that I don't want anything fancy at all, just simple, classy and functional.

Probably in the neighborhood of $200 to $250.

Trademark,

A couple of things,

I am trying to learn checkering right now myself, only on hold out of a need to securely mount a vice for holding the cradle and need to purchase some magnifying goggle thingies. I plan on taking it to a point (if God gave me enough raw ability to develop) where I can do it for other people too. But until I am real confident and experienced, if I want to stock something that is a special project of mine I will have the checkering done by somebody else. don't get me wrong, I am going to practice on all the old plain jane stocks I have on my rifles now, but the custom that is in the 3rd quarter of the game now is going to have the checkering done by somebody good.

The other thing I wanted to mention was that Chic is invaluable as a resource for instruction, information (tools, materials etc.) and as you can tell is very helpful. He told me what to purchase to start out, and has given me lots of other help. Although I have only ruined the butt of a few stocks laying around the shop so far his help has helped me a great deal.

(ps, in Monte Kennedy's book look at these two patterns "Mystic Maze" and the Roy rogers rocket pattern, something like that, those are my favorites and the two that I aspire to be able to accomplish).

Red

For a first time checkering job, what would be a good LPI spacing? Not too fine to be tedious for a beginner, and not too coarse to look out of place?

Mark:
The coarser the checkering the more labor involved. Bigger diamonds equals deeper valleys equals more passes with the checkering tools.

Finer checkering is easier to screw up because a shallow mistake can wipe out a lot of checkering.

For a beginner I would start around 20-22 LPI. It's a good compromise in regards to time involved to complete the job and difficulty.

Also 20-22 LPI will not be to coarse to look attractive.

I have my own prejudices about stocks and checkering specifically. Beauty is in the fine details but checkering has a functional purpose... th increase your ability to grip the stock and fine 22 lines checkering while extremely beautiful is defeating the purpose. I (remember I said prejudices)prefer 16-18 lines/inch and as you can see I like skip line for aesthetics.

Checkering is the last phase of stock making. The stock should be totally complete and finished before the stock is checkered.

After checkering I use some of the finish used on the stock, dilute it with whatever thinner is recommended and add a stain (black or brown) to the thinned finish and brush that concoction into the checkered areas. It will actually seal the checkered areas and give it a slight highlited look and will not appear shiny like the rest of the stock. It's a very nice touch.

If you want to do your own checkering, I suggest you get Dem Bart tools (carbide too) from Brownells and practice a hell-of-a-long-time before trying a fine quality stock.

Here's my last stock and it's after several years of checkering.

Vapodog,
To each his own and for aesthetics, I detest skip line checkering and just about as much as I do staining checkering unless you have stained the stock, but as you said that is just a prejudice on my part. However the statement that 22 lpi defeats the purpose of improving the grip on a rifle is far from the truth. The grip is improved by the points providing a "rougher" contact surface for you hand to bite into. 22 works well and so does 24 or 26, even 28. The statement that fine checkering does not do what is intended to do is an old wives tale that deserves a final burial. The important thing is to properly point up the diamonds and not leave smooth surfaces on top. Your skip line will have less resistance to slippage in your hand than a good 24 lpi pattern. Not prejudice or conjecture, it is a given.

Sorry to come down so hard on you but I am in complete disagreement. But then you may have figured that out.

BTW, good work is good work and whether I like the style or not you did a nice job on that rifle and chose a difficult pattern.

[ 10-31-2003, 06:23: Message edited by: Customstox ]