Now that was an excellent video.  I can imagine the amount of time you have put into that stock.  Its been worth the effort as it looks great.  I was very interested in the tooling required as I have never seen it. That and the approach to getting what you want in the design.  I doubt a shakey, one-eyed old guy like me will ever checker a stock, but its fascinating to see the work you have done on that A3.  Its going to be a beautiful rifle and a project you can be proud of for years...God Bless and I am very much looking forward to seeing the finished project.

Lawn mower, weed eater, train horn, and dog barking in the distant background.  I love it.  No fake stuff here

I bought myself some chekering tools and cradle several years ago, now Im glad I did. They are getting hard to come by. I am getting close to retiring, that is when I intend to have a go at it. This is rare content, thanks for making it!

You might mention before you ever try doing checkering on a stock it is best to practice on a flat piece of wood to learn how each checkering tool works. Checkering tool sets come in in line per inch sizes. Checkering sets range from 18 to 32 lines per-inch.
Choosing the tool set for cutting the diamond size you prefer to use is important to understand. The finer the pattern the more important the quality or type of wood and grain structure is.
You seldom see fine line checkering on rifles but more often on Shotguns. There is a difference in pointed diamonds and ones that are not, that make checkered stocks range in quality and value.
Just seeing a checkered stock is not a sign of quality, if the checkering is badly done. It is another good idea before you try from scratch to checker a un-checker stock. Try practicing on an old one already checkered. Repointing the existing pattern to new condition is an easier way to learn how to reduce mistakes. :goodvibes:🙂

Lot's of good info here.  Thanks for sharing!  It seems though, that the most difficult part is finding the tools.  Everyone who sells them seems to be out of stock all the time.. Aaargh.

Absolutely first class.  So easy for me as a Southern man, is your delivery.    Just finished watching a video that was so technical, I got lost.  Thanks for this

Back in 1969 I bought a Smith & Wesson Model 36 but sold it, but a few years ago I bought another BUT it wasn't the same because of the Checkering on the Grips, the older ones were hand checkered & the new ones are machined or whatever/how they are making them these days SO I went on EBay and found a pair of 1970 grips and now I have the feel I remembered from my first Model 36, the difference is very noticeable--I love the feel of Hand Checkering, not all changes are for the better on modern guns.

That’s turning out to be a beautiful stock and one you can and will be proud of. You talked last week about the history of a gun. Any son or daughter or grandkid would be thrilled to tell the story behind this stock. Great work and an excellent video.

I could see where a roll of painters tape could help with keeping your lines straight.

Your stock is looking really good. Nice work.

Magnificent ! Done some stock work like shaping, inleting , glass and piller beading but never attempt checkering. Had a local rifle smith tell me he could teach a 12 year old to checker a stock . I don't know about that. Seems tedious.

Reminds me of a gun that Al Biesen had checkered that looked like the one he made for Jack O’Conner that I had a chance to buy but had just bought a new gun a week before🥲 sure wish I had gotten that rifle! It was a true work of art! Great job on stock it’s starting to look very custom. Those older rifles like the Pre64 with the barrel screw and the checkering around them was a nice touch

Thank you very much, my friend, for such a wonderful video tutorial on notching! May God grant you long and happy years of life! 🙂

Don't know if anyone has said , if you soak the cutters in mineral Turpentine then dry off and brush in the Gullet direction with what i know as a "suede leather brush" then you will find the cutters perform better.
essentially you are cleaning the Tool.
Also an old toothbrush can be used to clear the lines in stock,
good coverage on topic by the way

Thank you for this Tom, it's got me quite excited. I have done a couple of small checkering jobs, but all more than 20 years ago. Yesterday I cut the profile for my next project out of a blank that I have been saving up for a quarter of a century. Lots of work ahead, but I'll be keeping this video down-loaded for when I get to that part of the project.

This Guy is just Absolutely First Class!!! What a wonderful video!!!🙂 Watched every second!

Really awesome & helpful advice & information.
Really inspiring me to have a go at bringing some new life into a bunch of Lee Enfield sporters I have .
Back in the day just about everyone used Lee Enfield sporters or fullwoods in Australia. As a kid everyone had them , but now it’s all plastic stocks or the modern tacticool off the shelf rifles.
I feel the need to help a friend who has neglected his father’s no1 mk3* Lithgow . His dad was killed in Vietnam when my mate was 6 months old . So he grew up fatherless & enjoyed using the rifle over many years . But now it’s in a very sad state of affairs, woods split & cracked , has shrunk , very badly oil soaked in the usual spots & the bedding is kaput. Shoots 8-10 “ patterns at 50 yards.
To be honest all of his old rifles are in the same shape.
He doesn’t have the money ! Or even finding gunsmiths that do restoration work fullstop is a difficult task .
So I’m having a go at a butchered no1 mk3 stock right now . If I can get this one looking nice & shooting well , I’d like to have a go at my mates dads rifle .

If you thought anything that you did was perfect, you would not look at it and think that it had been an effort worth making.

That's a very interesting presentation. You can hear about checkering on You Tube for ten years and never get the full story like this.  Superb!

So far I think the checkering is looking really good!!!

There is one fine point of checkering that you didn't cover, and that it is sometimes best to not even checker or to pass doing a fancy checkering pattern.  This is because checkering can hide some of the grain of the wood, and in fancier walnut the figure that a person has paid for can be somewhat covered up by it.  A perfect example of what I mean is one of my local gun shops has a Marlin Model 1897 Annie Oakley Edition .22LR on display that has some really nice fancy walnut in the stock, but the checkering job that Marlin did on it was butchered.  That poor checkering job ruined the look of the gun, and hid some of the beautiful figure.  Ironically, had Marlin gone the cheaper route of not checkering the gun would have been truly spectacular.