Something I wrote up years ago. Making the tool may be of interest ----
DAMAGED CHECKERING REPAIR
We have seen checkering repaired by inletting a piece of wood and checkering it
to blend with the original. To do a good job that way is beyond our skill and
patience. I had a nice 1911 with a couple patches of checkering damaged or
gouged out. Instead of inletting wood, I filled the areas with a batch of
glue/sawdust mix, leveled it off and extended the checkering to cover the added
area. Since then I have used this method on several 1911s, a 1905 and two
Savage .45ACPs.
Here is what works for me, the glue fill and a little tool I made. I use clear
epoxy glue, not the 5 minute kind, mixed with sawdust to make a paste thick
enough to almost peak up when you pull out the stick you mix it with. You
don't want it to run after you apply it. You can mix light wood sawdust with
dark to get different final color. It is a good idea to do a couple of test
batches to learn how it looks when it is set up and cut into. For a patch
quarter inch square a couple of drops of the epoxy mixed with about twice as
much sawdust is a good working amount. Mix glue then add sawdust.
Clean the area on the grip with alcohol or acetone and apply the mix. After it
sets up, either overnite or under a light bulb for couple hours, carefully file
it level with the surrounding checker area. Maybe protect around it with
scotch tape while filing.
With the tool you make described below, you use the part without teeth as a
guide, while you carefully hold it in line with the cut you are making. Little
by little draw the cutting area of the tool over and into your now-hard patch
material. Don't go too deep till you have established your overall recheckered
area - then do all your cuts to match the depth of the original part.
I made the tool from a strip of 1/16x3/8" spring steel because I have a huge
amount of it. That might be a little thicker than it need be, but don't use too
thin. One edge I filed a sort of knife edge of about 60 degrees to fit, more
or less, the valleys between the checker diamonds. The first 3/4" is left
smooth, polished a little, and about 1/2" or a bit more
has the teeth filed in about 1/16" apart, the far end is wrapped with tape for
a handle. The working end I rounded to protect from damaging the original
grip. When your job is almost complete you can grind the end off square to
work into cuts that end abruptly as against the screw hole diamonds on a 1911.
The tool is so simple you will probably experiment with other configurations.
Because it seemed right for me, I made the teeth to cut as shown but could be
otherwise. I can imagine when it might make sense to have the teeth out on the
end, with the guide section inboard.
The epoxy paste filler cuts much like hard wood. As with anything for the
first time, it is good to check it all out on scrap to get a little experience
before attacking a serious job. This applies as much about the final color
match as it does to the checkering job workmanship. It is worthwhile knowing
that epoxy is tolerant of most color additions that are not water-based. I
have used various artists colors, leather dye, oil & acrylic colors to get a
desired color in epoxy fills.
