doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Checkering tools

Thanks John. I had found it on Midway but it says "discontinued"

However, I called the company and I'm good now.

Prepping a practice stock now.

Brent

Be prepared to go slow, very slow. I also found a good magnifying lens that you do not need to hold with your hands helpful.
My first attempt was trying to freshen the checkering of a shotgun fore-stock, it turned out so bad I mounted it on a piece of walnut as a reminder to me that quality does indeed takes time.
You will also be amazed when you go to your next gunshow by the large amount of poor checkering jobs you will see, and you will also really appreciate the well done ones.

I have only to open up my safe and I can find lots of poorly done jobs. One of my favorite guns, and Evans double 16 hammer gun is horrible, but I do love that gun anyway. One of the better, but far from perfect, checkerings that I have is a Cashmoor meat gun out of Christchurch. It is a hammer 12 and a gun that I shoot very well. But just plain jane flat-top checkering. It is a good bird gun for me however.


THe rip on that very red stock is beautifully done. I have no dreams of anything that nice.

Yesterday, I built a cradle and mounted the old Marlin's stock in it. I'll refinish it and use it for practice. Meanwhile, I am about to order some tools from WE Brownell.

Brent

[/quote]

I do not think you will have any problems. You know what looks good, all you have to do is copy it.

My hat is off to anyone that can checker. Have tried several times with most of the tools mentioned. Never done anything I would put on a dog collar, much less a rifle.
Chuck

I started out using the Dembart Tools. Then got a set of Gunline tools. I far prefer the Gunline tools better. They have more of a choice in cutters. And the cutters last way longer in my experience. Since they have the sharp tooth design on their course cutters, they do not clog up. Dembart tools are very bad for clogging and dulling since all their tools have the finer barb style teeth.
Another good thing about Gunline tools is that they cut in both directions.

I do really like the Dembart checkering gauge. It is diamond shaped and is good for measuring checkering spacing as well as laying out master lines.

A Swiss checkering file can be very handy too.

As for tips when actually checkering... When I do gun shows, I usually have my cradle set up and I work on checkering so that people can see me work. It is a good thing for people to see, plus it gives me something to do at the show. I get asked a lot of questions and one of the things I tell everyone is that it is very important to learn how to work with the patterns.
You need to know how to lay out patterns, when to close yourself in and when to leave an open area and work up to it. Even cuttig a simple diamond on a forend can be very tricky the first time you try it for this very fact.
Also, know when lines are straight and get something like a thin flexible steel rule that will help with this.

If you decide that you want to try to learn how to do this and find yourself needig practice pieces, contact me. I have tons of junk stocks I could send for the cost of shipping.

I have everything I need and have been waiting for time to get started- just ordered the above-referenced book.

If J&R Engineering is kaput, then somebody or some company should step up and produce a first rate power tool and good carbide hand tools. It seems to me a company like Brownells ( not WE Brownells) would be a good prospect. It's probably not a high profit undertaking. There are only so many people who do this work. But, it is fundamental to the whole custom gun industry, which is not a small enterprise. Brownells must have the means to buy rights to J&R's designs and contract the production work. Maybe something like this is already underway, but I'm not aware of it.

Did J&R ever make any multi line cutters in carbide? I have a couple of the single line carbide tools and really like them.

The only other multi line cut carbide checkering tools I can recall seeing were in the hands of a couple that used to checker for Winchester in the 40's.
Then went freelanse and did the work for about everyone in the Ct and MA gun industry. They worked right up through the 70's at it.
They told me the tools they had were designed and made for them by Winchester.,,even had a set of the drawings for them as they could see a need in the future for other sets of them. Even carbide wears out.
The tools were large faced things probably 5/8" sq and gently radiused from side to side. You used both hands on the long handle. They did M12 and M21 patterns in a matter of a few minutes. Piece work and that's how they made their living.

Jon Hosford is selling power checkering tools with carbide cutters. He is also working on carbide hand tools. They are not yet listed on his site but I bought one of his power units after trying it at the Great Northern SxS Classic and like it a lot.
http://www.hosfordco.com/products/tools-measuring.html