Damaged checkering

The Outsider said:
If the wood is unfinished you can use a soldering iron or flat iron behind a wet face cloth to remove dents in wood.
Click to expand...

Y'all understand that that was exactly what he was talking about in his original post, don't you? Or not?

Anyways, Hchammer, it's worth a try, but not like to accomplish a whole lot. May give you partial results.

For small areas, a square or triangular needle file can be used to touch up the checkering, if used with patience.

Cheers
Trev
 
You can try wood filler then carefully recut with an exacto blade or drill out damaged area and fill with matching wood plug. Sand down to the peaks of the surrounding checkering and recut using a checkering tool (Tradeex has them for $9.95). Keep your wood grain direction in mind if using the plug method.
 
HChammer said:
I read on here about using an iron to take dents out of wood, would this work on bruised/flattened checkering?

Winchester 94XTR is the rifle.

Thanks
Click to expand...

We bought a remlin 336 in 35 rem that was made just after the jm > rep takeover.
We got it for $200 from a disgruntled owner.
He said he just wanted it out of his sight.
The metal, barrel, action were good as was the w/m fitting.
The checkering didn't have any depth to it.
Paw sanded it off and oil finished the stock.
The rifle shoots like a dream and looks great.
The older jm marlins didn't have any checkering.
 
Steaming might raise the dent. Retouching of the checkering might be needed.
I would not consider filler.
If there were a gouge that removed wood, I would inlet in a diamond inlay, using the checkering grooves to hide the joints, then recut the checkering, and finish to match.
 
The wood will swell up but you will still have to touch it up some how . As others have mentioned get the right tool and recut go slowly and check often the hight of the peaks of the checkering with a straight edge. Next will be to match the color and blend them to match little jobs can be as complex as big ones . If you do need to repair missing points there are colored wood fillers available. I have for smaller repairs made my own by using sanding dust from the same wood / project and carpenter glue , mix a paste and let it dry hard .
 
Recheckering is a good idea if you have the skill or know somebody that does.
We've seen a couple of 'dogs breakfast' attempts at recheckering.
For light recoiling brush rifles like the win 94 & mar 336 sanding the stocks smooth and applying an oil finish is a good alternative.
 
Do you want to make a professional quality invisible repair or do you just want to make it look better? The steam/recut/refinish method if done with care will improve the appearance, but it will still show. A professional repair, such as an insert cut to follow the checquering, then chequered and the finish blended to match the rest of the chequering requires skill, patience and experience. This kind of work does not come cheap, probably too expensive considering the value of the gun.
 
Last edited:
A good sanding, smoothing and oil job is easier to do and much better looking than a 'half ass', botched attempt at checkering that looks like a 6 year old did it with a jack knife.
In our lives we met 1 guy that had the skill and equipment to do real professional level cut checkering.
Paw is by his own admission 'not bad'.
 
Removing checkering completely requires dressing the wood down below the level of the deepest cut. It can be hard to do without it being really obvious. The stocks need to be recontoured.
 
Wow thank you everyone for the input!! I was asking because I was looking at two rifles to buy and one was in excellent shape other then some bruising in the checkering.. I think I have decided to go with the one that doesn't have damage to the checkering.
 
tiriaq said:
Removing checkering completely requires dressing the wood down below the level of the deepest cut. It can be hard to do without it being really obvious. The stocks need to be recontoured.
Click to expand...

The 'shadow' checkering seen on some of the early remlin leverguns from the new Ilion, ny factory had no depth to it and could be sanded off without removing much wood.
The 336 paw sanded and oil finished did not have any metal conspicuously proud of the wood and everything fit well after the refinishing was done.
None of the early jm marlin leverguns had checkered stocks from the factory.
I notice the recently manufactured remlins have pretty decent checkering and paw says the machining is better than some jm marlins he has stripped to basic parts and inspected.
The new remlin factory is working from blueprints using cnc guided machining.
I didn't notice any checkering on any of the pre 64 winchester model 94s we owned over the years.
Our pre 64 win model 100 had real checkering.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom