Checkering Gunstocks

The fine art of checkering gunstocks is a skill most anyone with good eyesight and some patience can master. Basically, it consists in scratching up a gunstock with parallel lines and then doing it again at an angle to create diamonds in the wood finish. I have been taught, and always have done it that way, that checkering is to be done on the completely finished wood surface. So yes, it takes some guts to dig your checkering tool into a stock finish that you’ve just sweated over for perhaps weeks.

Clearly you don’t want to start your checkering experience on such a finish. The courage to do that will come with experience. The first gun I checkered was a Ruger 10/22. As I recall I also carved my monogram into that gun, though I believe it was a grave mistake to identify myself on what I now realize was mighty shoddy checkering. But one has to start somewhere, and that’s what I did. I recently saw three guns a friend had taken in on trade for some services he had performed.

The three all had neglected-looking stocks with the finish peeling off or missing entirely in patches. Any one of them would have been an excellent place to start learning how to refinish a stock, and/or apply some checkering, or maybe do some recheckering. One was a Ruger 10/22 which I nearly bought so I could say I’ve done a 10/22 properly, but in the nick of time I realized I have way too many projects in front of me as it is. Tools The minimum required tools are not many. Two are mandatory.

The first of these is a single-line cutting tool, which you use to lay out two master lines on each panel of new checkering. It is also the only tool needed to rechecker a gun that already has checkering. The second mandatory tool is a spacer, which cuts two lines at the same time. There are several configurations of spacer cutters, some with a blank guide to follow the first line while the cutter cuts the second line. These are available in right or left patterns but I never use them.

I also have never used a three-line cutter. I prefer the double cutter with no "safe" blade, though it requires a slight knack to manipulate. You can get different spacing of these cutters to give coarser or finer checkering. Most commonly you’ll work in the range of 16 to 20 lines per inch. The angle of the cut, which is the included angle of the cutter, is either 60 or 90 degrees, and I far prefer 90 because the grooves are shallower and the individual diamonds are stronger.

Once you have the lines all spaced out and deepened somewhat you’ll switch to the single-line cutter to deepen the grooves to the proper depth, which means bringing the checkering diamonds to a point, but no deeper. I use the two-line cutter to deepen the diamonds considerably and keep the spacing correct, and then use the single-line tool to finish the job. A third useful tool is a very short cutter, about a quarter-inch in length.

It’s handy for getting into tight places and going around a curved border more easily. If you have long checkering lines on a relatively flat surface you might want a longer single-line cutter, which acts much like a big block plane or jointer plane in that its length helps you keep the lines straight. One more tool I recommend is a small vee-cutter or veiner chisel to get tiny and precise cuts on the border and for very short cuts in the tight ends of checkering patterns.

Of all these tools you’ll end up using the single-line tool most. I have a version known as a full view type, but have done many miles of finish-checkering cuts with a common single-line cutter, which is just a single cutter blade inserted in the tool that held the spacer tool.

Available in a variety of lines per inch, this one cuts 20 grooves per inch. A single-line cutter is available for this tool, rather than spending lots of money for a full view type. A good six-inch steel rule might come in handy during layout. Even better is a thin strip of flexible steel like I have, seen in the photos. It has served me well. It’s about six inches long and an inch wide.

You can hold it against the wood and run the cutter up against its long side to cut in your master lines and thus get them dead straight. It has angled ends which you can also use to gauge the angle of the diamonds throughout your stock but generally my diamonds are slightly more pointed than the angle on the end of this steel strip, so I don’t use it for that. The recommended diamond proportion is often said to be 3.5:1, but sometimes you might want to vary that.

To find your tools, check out direct shipping from Dem-Bart Company (dembartco.com, for great prices and a mighty clean and easy-to-use set of web pages. You might also take a look at Gunline Tools (gunline.com, for your checkering needs. They have a grand selection of hand checkering tools that should give you whatever you need without wrecking your bank account. Again I say you don’t need much.

I recommend a two-cutter spacing tool, a single-row cutter to deepen your work, a short cutter for tight spots, and an old toothbrush to clean off the dust from your work. The small cutter part of each tool from either Dem-Bart or Gunline is replaceable and it’s a good idea to replace it once it gets dull, which might take one stock or a dozen, depending on the stock finish and wood quality. Whatever you do, make sure the cutter is absolutely tight within the tool. Loose cutters give headaches and massive blunders.

I recommend setting the tools up to cut on the pull stroke. In my research for this article I found some incredible rip-off prices online for some of these simple tools. The full-view single-line cutting tool that I use to deepen my checkering and for recutting older checkering is a loop of steel wire with the cutter suspended in front, so you can see what you’re doing a bit more easily. This is by no means necessary. I saw one of those full-view spacers offered at $90 on e Bay.

Even at half that price I suggest you look into making your own. I’ve had my tools for nearly fifty years and they were dirt cheap back then and the prices by Dem-Bart and Gunline today are still mighty reasonable for tools that won’t wear out in ten lifetimes. Getting Started How to begin? Keep it very simple at first. Let’s say you’ve got a rifle stock you want to checker along with all the tools you might want, per my recommendation or per the suggestions of others. The first thing to do is decide on a pattern.

The easiest is a simple diamond pattern with few borders and no tricks. If you saw the photo of my .338 OKH in my stock refinishing article, that’s a fleur-de-lis pattern, and I would not recommend you start with anything that complex. Once you’ve decided on a stock to checker and a pattern to put on it, mark the edges of your chosen pattern where you want it to go on the stock. Use something that you can see easily but doesn’t mar the wood. Sharpies work on some finishes as does masking tape or a very soft pencil.

Crayons or chalk are other possibilities. What you need to see is the edge of the pattern so you don’t go past that with your many cuts to come and you’ll need to be able to remove the marking from your finish later without destroying the finish. One of the necessary tricks to checkering is to set up a light to the side of your work. A relatively sharp source will give you the shadows you need to see what you’re doing. A few minutes testing ought to clarify that for you.

Forend Lay out the pattern on the forend of your stock. To lay out a simple diamond pattern, the top line will

The upper tool is the veiner, av-shaped chisel for getting into tight spots and various other tasks. be parallel with the top edge of the stock and the bottom will be either another straight line parallel to the bottom edge of the stock’s profile, or will be determined by the extended edges of the diamonds. The front and back edges of the pattern are formed by where the checkering lines stop. It’s common to wrap the checkering around the forend but I’d avoid that for your first efforts.

If you Be sure the cutter is tight in the holder. Wobbling causes massive errors. Do not checker the edges next to the tape and try to fill in the blanks up to that. The lines will never line up and you’ll have a mess. want checkering under the forend, just add a third panel there. With the pattern laid out and marked on the stock the next operation is to set the diamond angle by laying out two crossing "master" lines near the middle of the pattern.

That determines the angle of the diamonds and—for some patterns—the final configuration of the bottom edges of your pattern. The next step is to cut those two master lines with a single-point tool. I use a flexible steel plate, wrapped around the stock and secured with my fingers or with masking tape so that one of its edges follows the contour where I want the first master line to go. Cut a shallow groove right along the edge of the steel.

If you don’t have a steel guide, draw a straight line with a soft pencil or pen using any straightedge, or maybe a slice of thin cardboard, to keep it straight. Then carefully cut that line with your single-cut tool. Reposition the guide to give the other master line and, making sure the resulting diamonds will be parallel with the barrel axis, cut that second line. Don’t go past the pattern edge with your cuts. That’s one key to good checkering: Keep all your cuts within the pattern.

Overruns are ghastly and not easy to fix, though putting a heavy border on your work can sometimes do that. Strive for borderless checkering and build good habits early. One trick to avoiding run-over edges is to start the tool at the edge and pull it toward you, away from the edge. Here’s another important point: The final edges of your checkering pattern must always be determined by the gradually spreading lines that you space out, one at a time.

Except for the aforement ioned top and bottom lines, or in the case of curved lines on the pistol grip, do not cut the pattern outline and then try to checker up to its edge. This will give

This is an example. The checkering is already there and doesn’t need any more master lines. For a wraparound pattern the master lines would be on the bottom of the stock, not the sides. 416 Taylor getting some checkering on its forend. The two-row cutter has spaced all the lines and will deepen them somewhat more than they now are. you a mess and lots of headaches. Let the checkering lines determine how the pointed edges will appear.

I have a modern rifle made by a major manufacturer that has mighty nice-looking checkering areas. However, if you look closely the well-done checkering cuts within the checkering areas do not match the edges of the layout. The diamonds merely fit vaguely into the spaces allotted for the checkering. In other words, the angle of the ends of the pattern on the forend is not a match to the angle made by the checkering itself. That’s ugly!

As soon as you do some of your own checkering I suspect this kind of commercial work will look as shabby to you as it does to me. Once you have the two master lines laid out and cut within your chosen pattern, pick up the two-cutter spacer and run it along one of the master lines, making a second line to the left of the first one. Although a double-cutter spacer like I use will cut in either direction, I prefer to go to the left with new lines.

Generally the tool will cut wood either by being pushed or pulled but I do most of the work on the wood on the pull stroke. The trick with the double cutter is to slightly rotate the cutter axially so the cutter on the right side digs into the master line and makes it deeper until the second cutter touches the stock. Rotate the tool gradually back the other way (counterclockwise) until the second line is as deep as the master line. Move the cutter over to the left and make a third line.

Don’t go full depth with any of the cuts yet. Keep doing this, going left (or right if you prefer) until you reach one edge of your pattern. Turn the stock around and cut from that same master Some older English-style checkering had flat tops on the diamonds. That’s not what you want. line all the way to the other side of your pattern. Tackle the other master line, again going to the edge of your pattern on both sides of the master line.

In this manner you’ll get used to always going left (or right if you find that easier). This quickly gives you some good control of the grooving technique, which basically is to put the cutter into the master groove and gradually rotate the tool to deepen each new line. It’s easier to do this in one direction rather than both. At least for me it is. Checkering Cradle? I must mention a tool many checkerers find handy: The checkering cradle.

This is a fixture that grasps the stock with care and firmness yet permits the workman to rotate the stock easily so the cutting tools stay basically on top all the time. Long years ago I had a comprehensive version of this in the form of a stool with an elevated clamp system, so I could sit on the thing and control the stock in front of me. After a few months I gave the doggoned thing away and have done all my checkering ever since then in my lap, usually seated on the couch or in a comfortable chair.

That’s how I did my $40,000 Churchill .470 double rifle and how I’m doing my .416 Taylor, which you see in the photos here. If you want a cradle, make your own, or spend lots of money and buy one from Brownells. If you get a chance to try a checkering cradle by all means do so. However, just because you don’t have one doesn’t mean you can’t do good work. Back to work.

If you’ve followed along with my suggestions, you’ll now have your checkering pattern lightly roughed in, with flat-topped diamonds filling your pattern. Go over it again with the same two-line tool, deepening the cuts gradually and keeping them even. When you’re nearly done, pick up the one-line

416 Taylor. The lines that are parallel to the bottom of the pistol grip cap on this side are the vertical lines on the other side and vice versa. Don’t try this at home. Note also the squareness of the resultant diamonds and the curved (English) back border to the panel. The checkering wraps unhindered across the top of the grip. cutter and, being careful to keep the cutter precisely perpendicular to the wood surface, deepen the cuts until the diamonds are just pointed.

Do this deepening gradually, over all the pattern in several passes. Are you doing a good job? How to tell? One way to check is to look across the pattern at right angles to the stock and see if the shadow lines formed by the diamonds are straight and parallel. If they are wavy you’ve got some uneven diamonds. Be sure to use a brush to clean out the dust as you go. I do a lot of huffing and puffing as I go along but an old toothbrush also works well.

Pistol Grip For the layout at the pistol grip you’ll probably want to have curved edges. But not necessarily. It’s up to you. On my .416 Taylor I wanted to wrap the checkering over the top and chose a method that ended up giving the diamonds a more-nearly square shape. I lined up one master line with the bottom of the pistol grip and when the pattern got to the top of the grip that line became the off-angle master line for the other side.

This gave a harmonious look to the pistol grip, though the diamond angles are not what one might expect. The back edge of the grip panel is curved forward, again opposite to what you might expect. I saw this on a British gun long ago and liked the effect and so incorporated it here. The front curve of the panel simply runs with a single-groove border up the grip. That’s the sort of thing I suggest you do to both the front and rear curves of the panels.

I recommend you do not attempt to wrap the checkering on the grip on your first checkering job. Let This is the forend of author’s Westley Richards shotgun. Note the vertical lines, perpendicular to the metal at the top edge of the photo, are in fairly straight rows. This is not too bad. It’s a rechecker job, not new. the checkering cuts determine the edges of the front of the pistol-grip pattern, where it generally ends in points instead of curved edges.

An easy way to make your checkering eye catching is to leave an uncheckered island of wood within the pattern. When done with taste this looks really good. On the negative side there are that many more opportunities to bugger it all up with overruns. An Alternative One good way to start your career in gunstock checkering is to get only one tool, the single-line cutter, and rechecker an existing stock. Recheckering is a snap compared to doing all-new work.

I’d stay away from the impressed checkering like that used for a time by Remington. There’s no easy way to keep it all straight. Recheckering is simply cleaning out and pointing up worn and dirty old checkering so that it looks good again. The only tricks are to keep it straight, don’t go too deep, and don’t be in a hurry. When you’re done with the job, clean out the grooves again with that old toothbrush. When the grooves are all recut and all clean, put some linseed oil on the fresh checkering.

Don’t be stingy with the oil. Brush it along both groove directions with your toothbrush. After it soaks in awhile, wipe off whatever you can get off with paper towels. As noted, the spacing may be had in various widths, giving different lines per inch to your checkering. Spacing cutters may be had to cut from 16 to 24 lines per inch. Coarse checkering might be more appropriate for a rough-use gun that might be handled with gloves on, or for softer woods.

Finer checkering is more appropriate for a gun with finer appointments. I have not found a great difference in difficulty between doing fine and coarse checkering except that soft woods don’t take kindly to really fine checkering. I’d suggest staying between 16 and 20 lines per inch, and be sure to keep

all the checkering spacing on the stock the same. When I redid the checkering on my old Westley Richards I had a bad job to clean up. Some fool had decided the checkering looked better if it was darker than the surrounding wood, so he stained it or put shoe polish or axle grease or ink or paint into the grooves. Whatever it was it was really nasty to get out and I had to get it all out because the checkering looked muddy, streaked, and generally lousy until I did.

Books As to good reference books, probably the greatest book on checkering is 416 Taylor would be a simple one to start with. The white line would mark the bottom of your pattern without doing the wraparound shown here. The edges of the grooves form the bottom edge and the top is a simple straight line parallel with the top of the stock. Monty Kennedy’s Checkering & Carving of Gunstocks, which has been reprinted several times. I have the 1952 edition and more recent editions can be had for under $40.

Another good book I ought to have mentioned in my piece on refinishing my Westley Richards 10-bore is Al Linden’s Restocking a Rifle, however, unlike Kennedy’s book, this hasn’t been reprinted since 1969 and those older books go for around $200 today. Both contain incredibly valuable information that you won’t find so condensed anywhere else. I hope this has inspired you to take up the gentle art of gun checkering.

If enough good workers do this then there won’t be any more gunstocks to checker anywhere and I won’t have to continue to go blind checkering yet another gunstock. I feel obliged to leave you with one important thought. I’ve done an awful lot of stock checkering over a great many years and I can tell you there are very few enterprises in which I have been involved that are more tedious and thankless than gunstock checkering.

The better you get at it the more picky you get and that means increased tedium to get it all just exactly right. Eyestrain is always high, though with proper lighting that can be somewhat alleviated. Probably no one but another checkerer will be able to recognize outstanding checkering work but I have found it to be a reward in itself. You look at your work in later years and say, "Yeah, I did that!" Then go have a stiff drink. You earned it. AG American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.