Looks pretty good. I wasn’t sure what the hell I was looking at when I first saw the pic of the tools. I was thinking they were some kind of trimmers 🤣

 

Yeah, they're from some company I've never heard of before. Miles Gilbert?
Plastic Handles and an instructional DVD also.!

I think later on tonight I'll watch the DVD just to see. I learned a few do's and don'ts just from this little experiment.

 

Flat piece of wood or not, to me, that seems like an excellent first effort!

 

Looking good!!!
I found the most difficult part of checkering was to have the patience to not try and rush. I had to take it at a pace where I had control and didn't do any over runs. For me, checkering is like living in slow motion. Needless to say I limit my checkering.
Best wishes.

 

That looks really good

 

Looks good, checkering is an acquired skill a hyper person or crackhead would have a problem with. Take it slow and methodical, slow is smooth and smooth is fast with practice.

 

I should be ok then. It's been at least a solid 9 days since I gave up crack..😆

 

You are a braver man than I.

 

This world needs more talented grip makers. Nice first go.

 

I am wondering if you cut the grooves in one pass, or is it done by going over the line multiple times?
Your first attempt looks really good! Stick with it's

 

Multiple passes. Not sure exactly how many but definitely did not cut them with two or three passes. Started out very light and just kept going over it. I really wasn't trying to produce a "finished product". Just mostly wanted to see how the tools felt in my hand. I was excited so I just started cutting on that wood. The mistake I made was I cut the first three or four lines and then deepened them all the way. That made it hard to cut the rest of the lines. I realize it's going to be much easier cutting across lines that aren't so deep. Next time I'll do ALL of the lines and then go back and deepen them all at the same time.
Also, after using this set, which works okay, I've realized I'm going to need to get a real set very soon.

 

Nice job, but that's what we expected. As for me, I'm a smooth grip kinda guy but keep up the good great work.

 

Awesome stuff. Can't wait to see grips.

 

Awesome
Congrats.

 

YESS!!

 

Good luck I keep trying. I haven’t got it down yet.

 

Looks really good! I wish some of my first tries looked that good.

 

next step after checkering is engraving a nude (preferably female) on the panels...

 

It looks really good. I guess if a person wanted to pull out a magnifying glass, they could probably find something wrong with it. The grain probably works in your favor. In the upper right hand corner, it reminds me of tattoos, lines are often thicker with the more pressure applied. But when you look at the checkering as a whole, it looks incredible! Looking forward to your progress and your first set of grips. Thanks for sharing!

 

I guess that means you have a checkered future rather than a checkered past! Good luck with it!

 

You Sir are a brave man than I am. Looks great to me. You will gain confidence and skill as you go. I've been tempted by some of your work and looking forward to your future offerings.

 

Well, I'm going to do my best to keep tempting you..😎
Thank you for the compliment sir!

 

Glad to see you doing this. It should greatly expand your customer base. All best! 🦈

 

Heck yea Jason let me know when you’re ready I’ll take a set

 

Looks like a terrific start to me. Looking forward to spending more money!

 

Me too..😆

 

Enjoying the ride !

 

. . . ON THIS EPISODE OF "THINGS I LEARNED TODAY"...

first lesson,
make sure your master lines are deep enough for the cutting head to follow without jumping the track.

second lesson,
don't jump the track!

third lesson,
go slow

fourth lesson,
make up your mind which cutting head you want to use before you start, not in the middle of the project lol. 😅


so.., yesterday I started out with a piece of flat walnut. Although I'd never done it before it seems simple enough to pick up, again that's a flat piece of walnut.

Today, I figured I'd see what would happen with an actual grip panel...
Fifth lesson,
round is a whole lot harder than flat!

If you zoom in close on this pic, up towards the top the diamonds seem to look pretty good. There relatively uniform with no flat spots., however, when you get down toward the bottom you can see where I ran into a little trouble. That was because I didn't have my master line deep enough and the tool jumped the track. It was also because I started out with a 18 LPI cutting head which was just too small for me to manage. I'm actually using a tool meant to do borders. I have no idea what the LPI is on this, probably somewhere around 12... but it works. Check it out, leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

also,
Sixth lesson,
working with wood that's been stabilized in Cactus Juice sucks. Much rather use Walnut or something in its natural state.

 

. . . ON THIS EPISODE OF "THINGS I LEARNED TODAY"...
View attachment 1834940

Can this piece be saved? Seems like a nice example.

 

The Miles Gilbert brand has been around for many years. I have one of their recoil pad jigs.
Midway sells that product line.
They are usually good quality from my experience.
Looks like you are gonna be making a lot of checkered grips.
Probably should checker before the stabilizing is done so the wood isn't "Gummy".
I like what I see sofar!
Please keep showing your progress.

 

Yes sir, thank you for the tip!, and for the support!!

 

Yeah buddy!!! This is what I was waiting for, can’t wait to see the full checkered grips you put out. Hey if you wind up selling any less than perfect practice sets, let me know 😉.

That said, the above is looking pretty perfect already!