Craft Gunmaking, No compromises, No corners cut, EVER

Tuesday, May 7, 2019

Un-Checkering a Fox's Cheeks

Here's an early A grade Fox with multiple issues.  Much internal rust, inop safety, inletting that had been "fixed" and checkered stock cheeks (no doubt courtesy of the same farrier that fixed the inletting) and a few dents in the wood.  

I will never understand why some think that checkering the side panels of a boxlock looks good.  To my mind, it's like putting a vinyl top on a car.  Why would one want the roof a car upholstered, no one sits there.  Why would one checker the cheeks of a boxlock, it's not a gripping surface.

I also had to make a couple of screws and pins as well as a cocking slide spring and install a Silver's #3 pad to replace the beat-up whatever-it-was that was on there.  All pretty run-of-the-mill stuff.  The cheek repair is the interesting part of the job and the reason it's up here.  

Since I won't divulge how I performed the repair (not even to the owner), there isn't much to show beyond the before and after photos.

The stock, before:


The stock, after:
All of the wood is flush with, or proud of, the metal and the flat-topped checkering is correct for an A grade.  There is no faux "graining", painting or any other superficial grain matching technique used.  What you see goes all the way through.

2 comments:

  1. Seems like an odd choice for someone to practice their checkering skills on (more over-runs than the government budget!), but I'm sure you have seen worse.

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  2. some seem to think that checkering the side panels of a boxlock looks good.

    ReplyDelete