Stippled grip

[Chili Palmer]

Stippling basically doesn't work on wood. The last I knew you could get checkering files from Brownells. I bought a twenty line per inch and thirty line per inch for about twenty bucks apiece in the nineties. The checkering files are just for layout you will need a riffling file or three too and to do a decent job you have to do one line at a time, by hand. Not a task a lathe lends itself to well. A metal lathe that could cut threads would be needed and it would still be a royal pain.

I have seen cheap house cues that were lightly checkered. No name on them that I recall. Finding one of these and deepening the grooves with a riffling file would probably be the cheapest way to test the idea.

Hu

I was rounding down a square a while back and was going pretty fast with the power feed and it ended up looking like this. My son said you should make a handle like that - I informed him it would be nearly impossible to get the consistency with the equipment I have. I think a CNC would work though. Just not willing to the time into it.

 

[ShootingArts]

When in college I learned to checker gun stocks by hand. with checkering tools. You would layout a boarder on the grip and forearm and then cut it in. Than you remove the wood inside the boarder untill all lines were peaked. It was tedious work. I have seen one checkered pool cue, in fact I think I started a thread on this board many years ago about it.
The stippling that I have seen and its much the way you have described it was trench art. Bored soldiers in the trenches would take empty shell casings, usually the large ones and stipple those to create pictures. I believe I have one in storage that was handed down to me from my Grandpa.

People with time on their hands and no doubt minds on trench warfare, maybe mustard gas. I suspect some of it was amazing art. They would try to immerse themselves in anything but the war. I would think the fear waiting would be worse than the fear in combat.

A friend did the island hopping in WWII. He said he was always scared to sleep, afraid of being captured and atrocities committed. Decades later he got a contract to tile a new prison. Talking 360 tile most areas, floors, walls, ceilings. Once the bars went in he couldn't go inside. Ran the job from outside the gate.

Hu

 

[ShootingArts]

I was rounding down a square a while back and was going pretty fast with the power feed and it ended up looking like this. My son said you should make a handle like that - I informed him it would be nearly impossible to get the consistency with the equipment I have. I think a CNC would work though. Just not willing to the time into it.

I can't see the picture. Long before there was NC there were threading lathes which could cut spirals sometimes. Also rose lathes that cut following a template. These weren't duplicating lathes. They had another name too but it slips my mind at the moment.

I could have bought a rose lathe when somebody passed away. A big one and almost entirely handmade out of brass, aluminum, and stainless. I had the hot running wants but not the fifteen thousand to spare. That was a giveaway price for what it was. I don't think a hundred thousand would be out of line for that lathe.

Hu

 

[Chili Palmer]

I can't see the picture. Long before there was NC there were threading lathes which could cut spirals sometimes. Also rose lathes that cut following a template. These weren't duplicating lathes. They had another name too but it slips my mind at the moment.

I could have bought a rose lathe when somebody passed away. A big one and almost entirely handmade out of brass, aluminum, and stainless. I had the hot running wants but not the fifteen thousand to spare. That was a giveaway price for what it was. I don't think a hundred thousand would be out of line for that lathe.

Hu

Sorry, no pic, I meant it looked like a checker board.

 

[Brookeland Bill]

Anyone ever do a wrap less cue with a stippled grip? I’m thinking like what you have on a pistol. I think that could feel real nice.

Years ago cheap cues were stippled.

 

[Patrick Johnson]

i would suggest you to add a textured carom grip on a wraplesss cue. It works way better and it's removable.

Don't know if it's the same thing, but I tried a removable rubber grip on my wrapless butt for awhile - liked the feel but (surprisingly) it added too much weight.

pj
chgo

 

[Bluehammer]

Well now I’m in a google search tornado for the difference between stippling vs checkering. Checkering is what I was referring to.

 

[Cuebuddy]

Well now I’m in a google search tornado for the difference between stippling vs checkering. Checkering is what I was referring to.

Ok, I did a search and found the thread that I made back in 2010 about a checkered pool cue. The links to that cue no longer worked but after a little hunting I found the cue again. This is a busy cue but it shows that you can indeed checker a cue and I am amazed that a few cue makers have not tried, believe it or not there are cue makers that have got their start from gunsmithing and vise versa.

Billiard Cue Cal Hedden

BilliardCue.com is the premier website featuring custom & collectible billiard instruments.

www.billiardcue.com

 

[Rickhem]

Did an image and deeper search. Have to say that after seeing thousands of rifles and shotguns I have never seen one stippled. Also, there doesn't seem to be anything like metal stippling for wood. Called the same thing, can't argue that, but stippling in the same manner as metal, hitting the wood at a fairly shallow angle, doesn't appear to be done. I found people that hit straight down on polymer too.

So I agree, there is something called stippling done to wood sometimes. It is a stamping process. It isn't the same process as stippling done to metal which indeed doesn't work well or look good done to wood.

Brownell's wood stippling tools: https://www.brownells.com/tools-cleaning/gun-tools/stock-tools/wood-stippling-punches/

I have seen light colored one piece house cues with a light diamond pattern on them. Finding one of these and deepening the grooves with a riffling file would give a checkered surface or something close to play before trying to checker a nicer cue. Looks like a side project while watching TV. I have reloaded many thousands of rounds of rifle ammo with inline dies like that. A few careful inspections along the way and it is safe. Just have to have the right toys.

Hu

Anschutz was big on stippling their stocks. Look at the older silhouette and air rifle stocks.
I can tell you from first hand experience that the stippling is every bit as "grippy" as cut checkering. They ran a deep border around the stippled areas and I always thought they were some of the best looking stocks.

 

[Bluehammer]

Ok, I did a search and found the thread that I made back in 2010 about a checkered pool cue. The links to that cue no longer worked but after a little hunting I found the cue again. This is a busy cue but it shows that you can indeed checker a cue and I am amazed that a few cue makers have not tried, believe it or not there are cue makers that have got their start from gunsmithing and vise versa.

Billiard Cue Cal Hedden

BilliardCue.com is the premier website featuring custom & collectible billiard instruments.

www.billiardcue.com

Thanks for finding this.

 

[chuckpilegis]

I have never seen a stippled gun stock. I have made stippling tools and stippled metal. Tried stippling wood, it didn't work well so fortunately it was just scrap wood. I do think you are confusing stippling with checkering. A world different in both the process and result. Checkering is cut in, stippling hammered in.

Hu+

I went on Youtube and put in stippled gun stock and got a few vids

 

[ShootingArts]

I see that stippling wood has gotten pretty popular since my smithing days twenty years or so ago.

Stippling metal was done by angling the tool and hitting at that angle making a pit and a burr. This works very well on metal and when done by a master smith like Jim Clark senior could rival checkering for grip. This is what I think of when speaking of stippling. From what I found wood stippling is more of a straight on stamping hit. The technique for stippling metal didn't work well.

Things change in twenty years or so! It was only a year or two ago that I noticed that Max Machelle Jr. is near legend if not legend. I remember a nice and respectful twelve and thirteen year old I shot with.

Jim, that is an awesome conversion you found! Reminds me of an aluminum hardhat I saw. The man had worked in the mideast and he found an old lady that did fantastic work with a hammer and nail. I would say it came closer to bas relief images than anything else. I think she charged twenty dollars to do all of the large smooth surfaces of the hat. Both craftspeople put in a lot of work on something of little value to start with.

Obvious that the cue was a labor of love. It should have stayed in the family. Reminds me that my treasures will probably be given away or sold in a garage sale.

Hu