delete please

[diverwcw]

It amazes me the smith didn't disclose that to you. He would have known right away what the flub was. He was trying to conceal it from you. I think a good resolution is to discuss it with him, let him know how disappointed you are and then take it someplace else to have it repaired.

[milotrain]

You hire a contractor to build some stairs to your back porch. They come out crooked. "Don't worry about it, they are only for function, not meant to be pretty to look at" is NOT an acceptable excuse.

Not at all actually. Stairs need to meet safety codes, and need to be even to be functional. Front strap stippling is a grip augmentation. I'm not saying that the OP shouldn't care I'm saying that I wouldn't care. It's not worth it to me to go to the smith, get frustrated with him/her have them be frustrated and either refund some money or repair it grudgingly. Then have the repair likely poor, then have a long argument on calguns about how bad "so and so" is, and incur all of that drama. Life is too ****ing short. I'd fix it myself, deal with it, or send it out to someone who I know would do it right and swallow the cost as an "expensive lesson".

[SMR510]

Not at all actually. Stairs need to meet safety codes, and need to be even to be functional. Front strap stippling is a grip augmentation. I'm not saying that the OP shouldn't care I'm saying that I wouldn't care. It's not worth it to me to go to the smith, get frustrated with him/her have them be frustrated and either refund some money or repair it grudgingly. Then have the repair likely poor, then have a long argument on calguns about how bad "so and so" is, and incur all of that drama. Life is too ****ing short. I'd fix it myself, deal with it, or send it out to someone who I know would do it right and swallow the cost as an "expensive lesson".

"Professionals" should be able to accomplish any job they take on to perfection. Paying professional prices for amateur work is unacceptable in my book. It would have been a lot cheaper for him to throw some grip tape on the front strap but he wanted the look and feel of checkering and he didnt get what he paid for.

[paul0660]

Ive had it for a few months

Pound old sand.

[John Browning]

I'd have him fix it or post his work with his name on it everywhere. If he was any good and at all honest, he never would have sent it out like that. That job is TERRIBLE.

[sa champion]

I'd be really upset. I'm a cheap b****ard and wanted front strap checkering so I bought a file and did it myself. Not pretty but I'm happy about my own work.

I did have my Beretta swap out with a front FO sight and it was such a tight fit that the edge of the new sight got rolled up. The smith saw my disappointed look and didn't charge me.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

[robert101]

I think the Smith owes you a new frame. He can keep the bad job for his personal gun or sell it at a reduced price.

[CrippledPidgeon]

Wait... really? WTF? I mean yeah it's not perfect, and it's not right, but you didn't notice for a while and you are saying that the photos are worse than it is in reality. It's front strap checkering not engraving, it's not for looks it is for function. I wouldn't let it bother me one bit.

Think about it for a bit.

You paid full price for a gunsmith to hand checker your frame at 30 lpi, and he not only botches the job, but doesn't tell you that he botched the job in hopes that you wouldn't notice.

If he'd 'fessed up and offered a significant discount (or even not charged - obviously the best solution would be to either replace the frame or otherwise make everything better on his own dime), then the OP might not have had a problem with it, but the gunsmith instead decided to lie and cheat the OP. Of course, some of the blame does lie with the OP for not spotting the mistake earlier, but why would he be expecting the professional to be acting anything other than professional?

[MrExel17]

I'd have him fix it or post his work with his name on it everywhere. If he was any good and at all honest, he never would have sent it out like that. That job is TERRIBLE.

+1...

[FourT6and2]

Not at all actually. Stairs need to meet safety codes, and need to be even to be functional. Front strap stippling is a grip augmentation. I'm not saying that the OP shouldn't care I'm saying that I wouldn't care. It's not worth it to me to go to the smith, get frustrated with him/her have them be frustrated and either refund some money or repair it grudgingly. Then have the repair likely poor, then have a long argument on calguns about how bad "so and so" is, and incur all of that drama. Life is too ****ing short. I'd fix it myself, deal with it, or send it out to someone who I know would do it right and swallow the cost as an "expensive lesson".

So replace stairs with something else. Doorknobs. Who cares what the example is. You should be intelligent enough to get the point. A job was commissioned. It wasn't done properly. Period. The monetary investment in something like this is small. But if this were a civil suit in small-claims court, any reasonable judge would conclude, based on a preponderance of evidence, that the job wasn't done right and the guy deserves to be made whole. I'm not advocating this guy sue his pistol smith. But the smith should make it right.

And even if some amount of time has passed since the job was done, it's not like a scratch on a car where one would have no way of knowing when/where/how the scratch happened. It's not like this guy took a file to his gun and did this. I'm willing to believe the smith messed it up.

[milotrain]

And I'm not saying the smith shouldn't do something to make it right, I'm saying that I wouldn't really care because it doesn't change the functionality at all. Apparently you didn't notice that in your own example. Sideways stairs are not functional, bad checkering is as functional as good checkering.

This whole thread is filled with "burn him at the f*cking stake" and it makes me think that a lot of guys here don't have experience in craft or in working a labor type job. Mistakes happen and **** get's ****ed. The "smith should replace your frame" guy especially, that's completely out of this world, and a total sue your neighbor for all the are worth sort of atitude.

Having said all that I agree that the lie is the worst part about it and the smith could have made it easier by just fessing up to it, but I'll stand by my atitude of just letting it go. Life is too short. It works, it still functions, it's not as pretty and it was surely expensive but holding all the animosity that is in this thread does you no good, and certainly doen't fix the gun or inform the smith.

I would never deliver such a job, but I wouldn't be out for blood either, I'd never lie about a mistake but I wouldn't spend this much time being angry about anything so small as a bad checkering job. To the OP I hope you get what you want, and I hope you are happy with how it turns out, whatever that may be.

[c3 rolling]

Blah..Got a reply from the smith and he said the only way to fix it is to cut and weld in a checkered insert. He's on vacation and told me to give him a call in a couple weeks so I'm gonna have to wait for an answer. As for the insert, its gonna require a finish on the frame because the insert is not made of stainless steel..... I dont know about messing with my pistol that much for the sake of fixing visual flaws. Only positive resolution I see is getting some money back or something.

[milotrain]

It certainly seems like a return of some/most/all of the labor cost for the checkering is reasonable. Part of my interest in this is that I've done a fair bit of research on how to do front strap checkering recently as I was thinking of doing it on my 1911. The insane complication of doing so has lead me to realize that I'd much rather glue some skateboard deck tape to the front strap and have it as is. I can't imagine something more complicated for less gain than the act of front strap checkering. It is very pretty and for a while it was the only way to get increased grip on the front strap legally in EIC competition, but now that grip tape is legal I see no reason to do it. Obviously I'm a function over form guy when it comes to 1911s so "grain of salt" and all that.

[c3 rolling]

It certainly seems like a return of some/most/all of the labor cost for the checkering is reasonable. Part of my interest in this is that I've done a fair bit of research on how to do front strap checkering recently as I was thinking of doing it on my 1911. The insane complication of doing so has lead me to realize that I'd much rather glue some skateboard deck tape to the front strap and have it as is. I can't imagine something more complicated for less gain than the act of front strap checkering. It is very pretty and for a while it was the only way to get increased grip on the front strap legally in EIC competition, but now that grip tape is legal I see no reason to do it. Obviously I'm a function over form guy when it comes to 1911s so "grain of salt" and all that.

If I knew this would have happend, I would have joined you with the grip tape.

[FourT6and2]

And I'm not saying the smith shouldn't do something to make it right, I'm saying that I wouldn't really care because it doesn't change the functionality at all.

Functionality is not the issue. I'm not "out for blood" as you put it. If I paid someone to do a job, no matter how small, and they messed it up, I'd be on them to make it right. That's what it boils down to plain and simple. Doesn't matter if the error affects functionality or if it's just aesthetic. Checkering on a 1911 is both functional and aesthetic. When there's money involved, both better be done right. Or you get unhappy customers.