Joe, I have done everything on that list one time or another. That is how I came to understand the list. It is all personal experience. Some mistakes were minor and one was so bad I burned the stock. A few items I learned while in-letting and a few when checkering. You think "that I can do this like a pro" but you don't have a pros equipment, training or know how. Not going to happen right away, if ever.
And if you think that electric checkering hand-piece is going to improve your game I can tell you that you will take three steps back before you take one forwards with it. More to the point finer than 20 LPI I just refuse to try with it. It can cut a pattern so fast that you feel like a million bucks but it can also get away from you faster than a car on ice. And fixing a stray line in checkering can be like pushing mustard back into the bottle, through the narrow top, when it is half closed.
I hate most fiddle back Claro in general. Grian runs in three different directions and goes from soft to hard in a flash. Keeping a line in that stuff can be a pain. If it dents under thumb nail pressure I pass unless I can flood the surface with thin super glue to make the surface harder. I did have a nice Bastone fiddle back blank which checkered perfectly and it had about the most fiddle back lines per inch I have ever seen. So fiddle back varies by type and even within the same variety.
And never fool with a Maple birdseye, burl and fiddle back blank. I had one which I tried to checker twice, gave up and sent out to a pro who has done thousands of stocks only to have it returned uncheckered with a note saying job refused, it could not be done. I finished it without checkering and it was a very stunning stock. Like the pros I need to learn when to walk away and when to run.
