Dudley, I assure you that it took me weeks to clean out the checkering, but I did not recut it. The gun shows that it was not used much, and not maintained much. The knob on the stock is larger than the 0 grade stocks usually are. The gun had not been used since the days of black powder with which the barrels were heavily encrusted. There is some pitting but there remains enough metal to shoot safely. The gun would be unrecognizable to the seller from whom I bought it in Maine. It has taken many moons to bring it back. You are not the only one to wonder who checkered the knob, but no one has come up with a better idea than Parker.