Rob, it's my impression that the checkering is worn or sanded flat rather than being cut that way in the beginning, but like Lacey J (Dalton) says in the song, "I've Been Wrong Before"!
And BTW my earlier assessment of Tim's checkering as being journeyman-level should be considered a compliment and definitely NOT a left-handed one! I personally know of very few checkerers whom I consider worthy of the term master or expert, very few indeed. No checkering is flawless, I repeat none. There are flaws in all jobs, the only question is how visible are they?
One key to an expert's work is that he or she can execute a complicated and otherwise difficult pattern in a beautiful design with a minimum of flaws, and then hide all the flaws without seeming obvious and actually end up having them seem invisible to most observers. Tim does this on the rather simple patterns I've seen him do, but I've not yet seen any of his more complicated work such as multi-panel fleurs & ribbons or full wraparound top and bottom of the grip or similar.
I do know that on the examples of his jobs that I've seen, when you look across the tops of his diamonds at an angle you see that all the points are pointed and they all appear to lie in straight rows with no waver. This is one of the simplest telltale marks of an expert but it's an important one, and Tim passes that test a lot better than I can. What else can I say?
Regards, Joe
