looking for gunsmith that can repair checkering

[kel ruger man]

last year hunting i slipped and my shotgun hit a rock and pushed down a small area of checkering in the wood. can this be fixed up?

[Exbiker]

last year hunting i slipped and my shotgun hit a rock and pushed down a small area of checkering in the wood. can this be fixed up?

I would look for a cabinet maker good wood crafter or a firearms restorer. Seems like most smiths are about working on the actual action.

[normanvin]

I saw a show on time that they took a wet rag and an iron. They put the rag on the stock and used the steam iron to raise the ding in the stock.

It depends on how bad the ding is. You may need to have it re cut.

[kel ruger man]

wasnt sure if it is even possable to fix it. biker is right, seems like most of them just do actions, and other repairs.

[normanvin]

I have sen checkering done on a gun show. It does not look hard. You already have the pattern on the stock.

Check this out.

[kel ruger man]

pretty cool...they make it look easy as usual

[Tomcat088]

I saw a show on time that they took a wet rag and an iron. They put the rag on the stock and used the steam iron to raise the ding in the stock.

It depends on how bad the ding is. You may need to have it re cut.

I've never heard of anybody trying this on checkering. Typically, this only works for dings on the stocks. The method DOES work for dings in the stock, although how well it works usually depends on how bad or deep the ding is, and even the type of wood. The nice thing is that if it raises it some, but not completely, you can wet the rag again and give it another go. Typically when you screw up checkering, it's screwed.

wasnt sure if it is even possable to fix it. biker is right, seems like most of them just do actions, and other repairs.

Many gunsmiths today aren't really "gunsmiths". Many are basically machinists that work on actions, barrels, and the like. A real gunsmith should be able to work on every part of the rifle. Sadly, "real gunsmiths" are hard to find; or when you do find one, they're so covered up in work that the lead times are long.

pretty cool...they make it look easy as usual

He showed exactly how it's done. He definitely made that look easy. It is NOT very easy, and I would NOT recommend someone trying it on their own rifle. IF you want to do this, you should practice on a piece of wood that has some roll to it. This will help simulate the grip and foregrip area of the stock where you would most likely be checkering. It's very easy to screw up, and while it can be salvaged so that it's not a total loss, it'll never look "right". Checkering is one of those things that some people dedicate their life to mastering. As far as your stock, I haven't seen how extensive the damage is, so it's hard to say. My guess is that a gunsmith will probably tell you that it's one of those things you'll have to live with.

[cdi]

Small broken areas in checkering can be minimized by building up the area with color matched epoxy and recutting the diamonds.

I have used Acra-Glass and dye to make repairs like that in the past.

[kel ruger man]

heres a pic of the gun and the damaged area...look at the highest peak of the fore arm

[Xringshooter]

That looks reparable. It may never look like brand new but it would be hard to see if done right.

If you have never done checkering, it looks easy, but you are watching someone that probably has years in doing it. I started learning a couple years ago and it's not easy to do a checkering job on virgin wood (no checkering at all). I'm still learning and practicing (on old stocks, scrap wood, etc.). My nexy project in my learing curve is to hand checker a pair of 1911 grips I made from cherry wood. However, if you get the basic tools (Brownells carries them) and really take you time, on wood that has been previously checkered, you should be able to do it.

That said, do you want to invest in the tools for a possible one time only job. Also, before you get the tools to do this particular job, you have to know what the lines per inch are in that pattern so you can get the correct tool(s).