doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Which checkering tool angle?

I'm jumping in with a couple other posts regarding flat top Fox checkering. Mine is a 1907 Fox A grade with checkering as shown in the pic. Question? I've not attempted checkering either but have access to the tools and ready to try my hand. But looking at the gun I don't see where there is enough room to cut an angle (90 or 60) on each side of the triangle and not eat away the triangle itself. Is the keyline outside the checkering cut or is it a knife cut?

Doug, Outstanding work on the Rem 94. Nice to see someone using the 94 as a base for a custom gun, they are really classy guns in there own right. Randy

For a bit f clarification, if my gun's checkering was in as good condition as RMC's gun I would not be doing anything to it. RMC's gun looks almost as though the checkering was made with no angle at all to achieve the flat checkering or does a 60 degree angle groove look that fine? Can anyone post pictures of a fox gun with flat checkering in near new condition? Thanks, Kurt

Although the clearest picute, here's a Sterlingworth ca. 1928 with unfired condition claim.

http://foxcollectors.com/My%20Forum/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=2344#p13480

Most of the older guns I have seen that have had recut checkering have had the wrong angle checkering tool used. You can spot them a table away at a gun show. The original checkering did not have sharp 90 degree points. I have a friend who has lots of stock restoration experience. He sometimes makes his checkering restoration tool out of old hack saw blades that are ground even finer than the 60 degree tool that we are talking about .

Regarding the pic of the Fox A I posted. I posted the best of the checkering, the rest is as smooth as a baby's butt. Yes,in most areas you can make out the outline of the pattern, but isn't the checkering designed to give some sort of friction in handling? Randy