Checkering and Carving of Gunstocks (Revised)

I've owned this book for about 20 years after I found a musty one in a used book store. I thought it was the find of the decade for me, and I was very happy a few years ago when I saw this book is now in print again. I have not picked up a copy to replace the delicate musty one I have, but I probably will one day. Monty does a great job of explaining what makes a good checkering pattern versus an ugly, too fancy, or problematic to checker design, encouraging and ensuring beginners they can do it, plans for a great checkering cradle, how to make checkering tools because they weren't even available to buy for most of his career (which is still useful info even if you buy most or all of your tools), what tools you need, how to make the diamond template and how to use it, where to put layout lines on tricky checkering patterns, and on and on. Anyone who thinks this book is not THE checkering book needs to read it again, or they already knew too much about the subject that they learned from someone else before they bought the book that it didn't seem like they learned anything. If this isn't THE book, which one is? I haven't found a better one, and the checkering video I bought from Brownell's was FAR less decriptive than this book is. I sent the video back after one viewing because I didn't learn A THING from the video the book didn't already teach me. The bottom line is, give two different guys the same tools and instructions, and they will NOT use the tools exactly the same anyway. YOU need to figure out how YOU use the tools to get the job done. I told my dad what I had learned about the subject while I was showing him one of my practice pieces and tools, and the first thing he did was grab the tool and use it in a manner almost totally opposite of what I had described, and got good results. Who the heck am I to argue?! The proof is right there on the wood! Checkering is an art as much as it is a mechanical process. Once you read this information, you need to figure out how YOU can best apply it. What do you want for $30, for Monty to come back from the dead and hold your hand?! In the end, no matter what you read or view about the process of checkering, YOU need to decide how to get started, and then control the tools until the job is done. Some people are brilliant enough to need no instruction at all. For those who do need some, I can't think of a better resource than this book. If you still can't figure out how to checker something after reading this book, then pay someone else to checker your work. If $30 is too much, rent it from a library. If the local library (or another one your local library can request books from) doesn't have it, ask the nice lady at the adult reference desk to buy one so you can borrow it. They usually agree, and get it in a couple weeks. Painless.