#HTE

How to Precisely Carve a Checker Pattern Into Wooden Handles

Over on the woodworking showcase site Lumberjocks, a fellow named Don W. was showing some pictures of a handplane he restored. The handle and the tote were in lousy shape, so he made his own replacements:

The handle, particularly the etched crosshatching, drew strong interest among viewers. Don thus provided a demonstration of how he does it. We’ll give you a greatly condensed version here:

First you need the files, or gravers. Don uses “a 4 line cutter, a 2 line cutter, a rough single and a finish single.”

Once you’ve got your sanded part, you lay out the border.

Next it’s a matter of choosing your angle and cutting that first line, or first two lines in this case, as Don is using the two-line cutter.

Then, still using the two-line cutter, he uses the last line as a guide to cut a fresh line.

Rinse and repeat.

Using the single cutter allows him to extend each line to the border.

Then it’s a matter of choosing the opposing angle and doing the other direction.

After painstakingly going over each line with the rough single and fine single, he can get the checkers “almost to a point.”

Looks pretty good! Click here to read all the details.

To give you a sense of how painstaking a process this is, check out this video of another fellow checkering his rifle stock: