Over on the woodworking showcase site Lumberjocks, a fellow named Don W. was showing some pictures of a handplane he restored. The handle and the tote were in lousy shape, so he made his own replacements:

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The handle, particularly the etched crosshatching, drew strong interest among viewers. Don thus provided a demonstration of how he does it. We'll give you a greatly condensed version here:

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First you need the files, or gravers. Don uses "a 4 line cutter, a 2 line cutter, a rough single and a finish single."

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Once you've got your sanded part, you lay out the border.

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Next it's a matter of choosing your angle and cutting that first line, or first two lines in this case, as Don is using the two-line cutter.

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Then, still using the two-line cutter, he uses the last line as a guide to cut a fresh line.

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Rinse and repeat.

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Using the single cutter allows him to extend each line to the border.

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Then it's a matter of choosing the opposing angle and doing the other direction.

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After painstakingly going over each line with the rough single and fine single, he can get the checkers "almost to a point."

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Looks pretty good! Click here to read all the details.

To give you a sense of how painstaking a process this is, check out this video of another fellow checkering his rifle stock: