Buzz, I'm responding to your questions by offering my own experience and opinions. First of all do what you want it's your gun! That said I believe that certain styles of checkering look best on certain firearms and to that end here are two photos that I took this morning. The first is my personal hunting rifle, a Fraser single shot that I love.
The next photo is from a SC gun that I'm checkering. I use this pattern with quite a few modifications for a client. I checker 2-3 guns a month using this style or something very similar.
I have done two guns using flat top checkering and I found it to be difficult because there is NO room for errors. I modified two checkering tips to do the jobs correctly, at least my view of correct. Yes,It's a bugger! I also believe that flat top checkering looks wrong if done finer than 20lpi and thats probably to fine IMO.
Pointed checkering has far more grip-ability, again IMO, but the main reason that I checker guns is because I think they look better. Again IMO!
I hope this helps.
