[Sparky]

Help me out here!!

I'm in the midst of a stock refinish project. The rifle is an Ithaca (Sako) LS 55. I've gotten the old,butt-ugly epoxy finish off.(Brownell's Certi-strip is great stuff). The hold -up on completing the job is the checkering.
It's in pretty bad shape & I am certainly too big a klutz to re-cut it. Sooo...
I want to try stippling the grip & fore-end. I think it would be a very functional alternative. The question is how to do it! Bought a set of "stippling" punches from Brownell's & they don't give the result I'm looking for. They give the effect of a pressed checkering machine gone awry.
Suggestions???
BTW-- What I'd like is the look/feel of an the stippling on an Anschutz target stock...kind of nubby/tacky feel. Maybe I oughts cut skate board tape & stick it on (just kidding)

[Brian Williams]

You probably have the tools to stipple Metal. I would get a very sharp but hard nail, a nail gun nail that has been ground to a very fine point, and practice on a finished piece of wood first

[Standing Wolf]

If you want open stippling, you can use a Dremel tool and touch-touch-touch-touch-touch the wood with the tip of a small burr. I have no idea how to do fine stippling.

[DeBee]

Actually, Standing Wolf is correct. You need the small ball shaped burr and your Dremel motor tool. Chuck that bit in a vice and bend the last half inch about one eighth of an inch out of true. Chuck this in the Dremel. Try it on some hardwood other than the stock first... You may have to fine tune the bend in the bit...

Second, stippling looks bloody awful. Even a buggered factory checkering job- especially Sako factory checkering- would still look better than stippling over buggered checkering! Stippling takes almost as much skill as re cutting checkering. Welllll, ok maybe not...

Take your time and mask off the checkering then go back and add some thinned finish in the checkering...

Send those damned punches back.

[Sparky]

Thanks all!

Had a local guy suggest usin a field point from an arrow clamped in a small pair of vice-grips , the tap,tap,tap,tap ...... You get the picture. He showed me a stock he'd done it to & it wasn't bad. The texture certainly provides a good grip.

I may sand the checkering off & refinish it smooth(it's a pretty decent piece of wood)

BTW Any of ya'll been told / heard that the stippling on factory stocks is done by burning/scorching the wood??? Sounds far fetched to this doubting Thomas, but local shop selling Anschutz swears thats how it's done????????????? :what: :what: