When the stock finish is completed, then and only then will you remove the tape. Take the razor knife and carefully trace around the edge of the tape cover. When you are doing this you are cutting through any finish coating that may have overlapped the tape. This will keep from tearing away the finish next to the checkering panel or "lifting" the edge of the finish. This can be especially important if you use a thick, built-up finish with polyurethane, Tru-Oil, or Lin-Speed.
A standard hobby-type razor knife is used to trace over the borderlines made by the plastic knife, and the excess tape outside the panel is pulled away. The checkering is now covered with a protective layer of masking tape.
After carefully removing the tape, you will probably find some bits of adhesive in the checkering. This can normally be brushed out with a toothbrush. If the checkering is at all worn, I strongly encourage you to go over it with a single line checkering cutter. This will clean out the lines and point up any worn or damaged diamonds. Some folks think you can use a multiple-line cutter, but I advise against this. Unless your multiple-line cutter has exactly the same spacing as the cutter used to originally cut the checkering, you will have problems. Let me explain.
Say you have 18 lines-per-inch checkering on the gun and you have a cutter that is also 18 lines per inch. Odds are one or both are not exactly 18 lines per inch. The cutter may be off only .003 inch, which is about the thickness of a piece of paper. No big deal on one or two lines but by the time you have cut, say, 10 lines, you are now off as much as .030 inch, which is very visible! Stick with a single-line cutter and you'll seldom have a problem.
After cleaning up the checkering, you will want to do something to protect the wood. Remember, we applied stripper to the checkering as well as the rest of the stock. Any finish in the checkering was removed. While we want to protect the wood that is checkered, we definitely don't want to fill in the checkering with a thick coat of finish. That looks terrible, and it impacts the effectiveness of the checkering to provide good adhesion when gripping the stock. We want just enough finish on the checkering to soak into and seal the wood. Anything more than that is to be avoided.
If your finish is relatively thin, you can just put a drop or two on the checkered panel and work the finish in with a toothbrush. You will get a little splatter on the surrounding stock, but that can be easily wiped off. If the finish is a thicker oil type, then you may want to thin it a bit with mineral spirits before you apply it to the checkering. It's much better to have the finish too thin than too thick.
Once the finish has been worked into the checkering panels, the job is complete. You should have a nicely refinished stock with checkering that is as good as or better than it was the day the gun left the factory.
North American Whitetall
North American Whitetail is designed for the serious trophy hunter. It provides authoritative coverage of world-class whitetails, the latest approaches to deer management and advanced hunting techniques.
