Meet the ‘Wood Butcher” Behind Custom Hand-Checkered Gun Stocks

Checkering, in fact, is the useful, but ornamental carvings on gun shares by which superb traces intersect in diamond-shaped patterns to make sure a stable grip and eye-pleasing patterns. Koch, 35, will get all of the checkering work he can deal with by means of his social-media posts, and word-of-mouth referrals from mentors and glad clients nationwide.

However you wouldn’t know Koch is so extremely regarded when moving into his spartan workshop north of Minneapolis. He wedged the 12-by-20-foot workspace into the third stall of his residence’s three-car storage. The store has all of the facilities of a Minnesota ice-fishing shanty, together with the propane-fueled Mr. Buddy heater that warms it.

And that’s simply how Koch likes it. He has no web site; solely a yet-to-be-activated area identify and URL he purchased some time again. However he’s no recluse. He’s on Instagram at “etkhandmade,” and at @evankoch4711 on YouTube. Winter guests normally discover him standing at his workbench, chisel in hand, hovering over his newest artwork piece whereas wearing flannel, heavy fleece, heat boots, and a down-filled vest.

The peg board above Koch’s workbench holds over 100 wood-checkering instruments, none of them duplicates. Every has a goal. Check him, when you doubt it. Koch estimates he made 10% to fifteen% of these instruments himself, utilizing a propane torch as his forge and a “large hammer and little anvil” to pound {custom} recordsdata and chisels from hardened metal.

Regardless of his rising fame, Koch didn’t go away his hometown of North Mankato in 2007 to develop into a prestigious gunstock maker and checkering artist. No, he enrolled on the College of Minnesota, and graduated in 2011 with a level in advertising and marketing and entrepreneurial administration. He labored in gross sales and advertising and marketing for a healthcare enterprise about six years, after which part-time at a gun store one other three years earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic helped push him into full-time self-employment as a wooden butcher.

Koch’s ascent started a 12 months or two after school when realizing he couldn’t afford a custom-built, hand-checkered firearm except he constructed it himself. He grew up searching squirrels with a .22 rifle, and knew nothing of a world the place individuals make four-, five- and six-figure investments in {custom} weapons and gunstocks.

However he had creative abilities and pursuits. He even labored part-time in school as a safety guard for an artwork museum, the place he seen artwork’s depth and variety. After graduating and beginning a enterprise profession, he spent free time learning the checkering on high-end weapons and rifles. He learn books in regards to the craft, and realized its instruments, strategies, and practitioners. He lastly put chisel to wooden when he was about 23, “surreptitiously” hand-checkering gunstocks.

Koch mentioned these early outcomes had been horrible, however he preferred the work and wished to enhance. He stored studying, working towards, and in search of assist by means of on-line mentors like Jesse Kaufman, then a hand-checkerer and stock-maker at Dakota Arms, and now a grasp engraver at Black Hills Gun Shares and Engraving in Sturgis, South Dakota.

“I had the mindset to recover from the hump,” Koch mentioned. “I wouldn’t give up. Ultimately, I wasn’t unhealthy at it, however I stored working to enhance. I wasn’t afraid to contact specialists and ask questions.”

He took an necessary step in 2014 by attending a weeklong hand-checkering seminar taught by Steven Dodd Hughes, a {custom} gunmaker in Montana. Koch introduced two tasks for “present and inform,” and began declaring their flaws. Hughes stopped him and mentioned: “Evan, we do not need to know what you probably did flawed. Inform us what you probably did proper.”

Koch stored honing his abilities and constructing a fame. His large break got here in winter 2017 when well-known rifle-maker D’Arcy Echols of Utah flew him to Las Vegas to attend the Safari Membership Worldwide’s annual conference.

“He knew my background, and that I had by no means met individuals who owned five- and six-figure weapons,” Koch mentioned. “These individuals promote safaris and e book safaris, and use nothing however high-end weapons. It was an unbelievable expertise. I met a few of my real-life heroes; guys whose work I had studied the previous 5 years. One man mentioned hello to me, and mentioned he acknowledged me from photographs of my work. It was James Tucker, a {custom} stock-maker from Oregon. That was an actual honor.”

That have made Koch work and examine his craft much more. When he left his full-time job for part-time work at a gun store in 2017, he spent much more time checkering gunstocks.

“My spouse, Alison, was the one who steered I take it extra critically as a occupation,” Koch mentioned. “I used to be working part-time to ensure I paid some payments, however knew I might most likely soak up extra work. On the identical time, COVID-19 was making the world loopy. So, when our son (James) was born in December 2020, I left the gun store and went out by myself.”

And his enterprise grew. Extra gun-owners and {custom} gunmakers despatched him gunstocks to hand-checker, together with work from Biesen Customized Weapons in Spokane, Washington. In 2022, one other gunmaker noticed examples of Koch’ work on Instagram, and referred to as to ask if he might checker their gunstocks.

“Almost every thing right here within the store is ready to be checkered,” Koch mentioned. “I’m nonetheless studying and bettering. The final couple of years I’ve lower means down on errors. Issues go easily now. Checkering jobs are available in and return out with out an error; with out points.”

Koch has additionally realized a lot over the previous decade about gunstock wooden — most of it prime walnut from Turkey, Armenia, Australia, and California — and the way every wooden’s pores, grain, and hardness have an effect on his chisel work.

He additionally retains studying how he greatest features with every chisel. He’s blessed with off-the-charts hand energy, which helps him lower 20 laser-straight traces per inch. And he is aware of when to step exterior to relaxation his eyes. Effectively-timed breaks make sure the constant checkering that makes gunstocks lovely and useful.

What are his secrets and techniques for turning such exact work right into a satisfying profession?

“I drink sufficient espresso to kill a pony,” Koch mentioned. “And you would be shocked at how a lot checkering I do whereas listening to Britney Spears. I work alone, so nobody is right here to guage me. I like a wide range of music, from classical to heavy steel. I can’t take heed to podcasts whereas I work. Checkering requires an excessive amount of focus.”