I have not yet used a power carbide cutter. I began checkering at 16 years old with hand tools and 52 years later still use them. I am simply looking for a way to do extensive patterns more quickly and help cut short lines to the proper depth without having to worry about run overs.
Parkers were not totally hand built. They used pulleys to work the machines and jigs that did the initial cuts on frames and other parts and then finished them by hand. Modern fine shotgun builders use CNC machines to do the same and finish by hand the way Parker did with their pulley system. Holland and Holland now uses CNC machines and Connecticut Shotguns always did. Are these guns or Parkers lessened by the use of machines? Certainly not.
If somebody looks at my checkering 100 years from now they will be admiring the attention to detail and the perfection of the job. They will care less if the initial cuts of the checkering were done by cutting wheels. They would have no way of determining that any more than they will look at a Parker produced frame and comment on the machines that were used to do the initial cuts. It makes no difference. It’s the finishing hand work that means anything at all. If I go to a power carbide cutter, my work will still be hand done with no apologies.
|