Can anyone elaborate on the history/timeline of checkering and the diamond on old Smith grips?

Was the checkering pattern on Smiths done by hand, or by machine? Or if both, when did this change?

What's the reason for the diamond? I thought it might be purely design, but there must be some reasoning behind it. I can see the grip screw might interfere with the checkering process; it looks like the diamond shape may be a natural result of avoiding the grip screw area while gouging out the lines that form the checkering.

Was there a progression of grip designs over time, or is it not as simple as saying a certain grip style was used from year x to year y?

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Snubbaholic

Very interesting questions. I look forward to replies to your post.

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I'm gonna grow fins.

Snubbert,

Production guns have been machine checkered for many years, at least since the 1880s or so. Hand checkering is extremely time consuming and therefore expensive, too costly for mass-produced firearms.

I have a theory about the diamond, but it probably doesn't hold water! S&W stocks have had the diamond since all checkered stocks were made of hard rubber. The hard rubber were moulded with the checkering in place. Early S&W wood stocks were mostly smooth. My second idea, and most likely the more correct is that when they started to use checkered wood stocks they simply followed the earlier hard rubber stocks and retained the diamond as a decorative feature.

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Gunsmithing since 1961

I asked this question about 3 years ago. Here's the thread.

Was/Is Checkering Hand Done?

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Get off my lawn!

On more than one visit to the S&W factory we watched the MACHINES that checkered the stocks.

When I went through armorers school in 1979 we toured the factory and I watched a workman checkering grips. He was using what looked like a dremel tool and his wrists were tethered so he would not cut himself.
I believe we were told he was working on piece work that is the got paid for the grips that passed inspection.