Thank you very much for the positive comments. I bought this stock with the sole intention of trying it out and being able to throw it away if I screwed up. I saw square checkering, diamond and fancy designs and I reminded myself that when learning something new do the simplest thing first,...square. Remember if you screw up the checkering, sand it off and start over. Is anyone really going to know?
I covered the entire stock in blue painters tape and drew the area to be checkered and cut it out.
Then I drew two lines perpendicular (90*) to each other and made a single grove pass down both lines. Then I used a 7 piece Dem-Bart checkering set to make the remaining passes and was careful to cut each line patiently. I made mistakes, but each one I learned from. I am doing another stock right now with square, the next one will be diamond.
The next task was cutting the comb. With the tape still covering the entire stock, I marked the bolt hole, and the recoil pad screw holes so I made sure not to cut into them. Then parallel to the comb I marked a line 1 1/8" down and drew my lines leading up to the top of the comb (see photo of my current stock). I just made sure that the flat part of the cut was at least 4" long and there was enough room so when I drill the two 7/8" holes 1/4" deep for the hardware I didn't go into the bolt hole.
Now you gotta keep the stock flat so it doesn't roll and raised enough so the taper from butt to receiver doesn't throw you off. Take a piece of wood like a stir stick and screw it to the butt to keep the stock flat. Now you have to keep the stock flat from front to back. Use something to raise the grip portion high enough so it is parallel to the table (I used a folded up paper towel taped to the grip...lol). This is only to ensure the stock is flat from front to back in case that got confusing.
Now make sure the table on your band saw is big enough it won't fall off the edge. Using a 14tpi x 1/8" blade with the guides barely above the height of the stock and cut the comb...SLOWLY, YOU CANNOT CORRECT A BIG ERROR. It took me five minute to cut the comb. I cut in just passed the first curve and shut the saw off. Caught my breath, repostioned and started again. I repeated this up to the second curve and again on the way out.
I sanded the cut with 100 grit on a 1/4 sander and the fall off with a disc sander. I mounted the hardware with the same patience and two part clear epoxy and put it all together. I then sanded the entire stock with 100 grit to make everything line up at my cut width wise. By hand I then sanded the stock with 220, 340 and then 600. Then here is where some assume I just oiled the stock, I didn't. I taped off the checkering and made sure to push the tape in all the way around the edges and then oiled it. Oil, color sand, oil, color sand, oil, color sand....20 times. On the last coat I let it sit for a day and color sanded with 2000. Then I polished it with Flitz and waxed it. I then cut around where the tape met the stock and carefully pulled the tape revealing the uncoated checkering. There was some disruption with the oil on the edge, but some toothpick work you can't see it. Next use a brush to apply one layer of oil to the checkering to seal it. Thats it.
Time:
Checkering. 2 hours per side
Layout and cutting. 30 minutes
Hardware. 20-30 minutes
Polishing the buttplate hardware that the guy before me screwed up. 20 minutes.
Sanding. 6+ hours
Oil rubbing/sanding/polishing. 4-5 hours over the course of days.
Kind of fuzzy but you can see where I marked the stock bolt hole, the parallel comb line and the screw hole for the buttplate
