Gunsmithing Assignment

For this week's reflection assignment, we were provided two videos for our paper. I chose the first video titled "Gunsmithing: How to checker a gunstock". The video features Mr. Larry Potterfield, the founder and CEO of Midway USA. The video was presented by way of youtube.com, and was posted by Midway USA.

Mr. Potterfield begins the video by explaining the role of checkering on gun stocks. It aids the shooter by providing extra grip, and is visually appealing as well. He showed several different variants in the beginning. Each one of the examples he shows has their own pattern, and design. I must say that I do like the ones with margin, as they look more clean. The others with the checkering all the way down sort of lack that professional looking appearance, as they are not tapered off. Mr. Potterfield goes on to show where to make the markings for the checkering of the fore end of a weapon. To begin the
Mr. Potterfield uses the proper tool for the job he intends to do. He shows that the cutting tool only cuts on the push, and not on the draw. When he nears the border, he switches back to a single cutter. Because he cut the border almost all the way down, it provides a "catch" for the cutting tool. This ensures his lines do not exceed the border. He also showed the hook and pull technique in which he turned to tool around so it cuts on the pull. Near the corners there is little room for error, so he employs a Xacto knife blade to make those fine lines. One thing I found interesting was the cross sectioning of lines in order to make the checkers. We use that in the tattoo industry whenever we are tattooing scales, like on a snake, dragon, or koi fish (except their semi curved). This video was really informative, and reinforced the text for this week's material. I have a fairly good understanding of the checkering process, and look forward to practicing in the near