The purpose of changing the texture of the surface of the front strap (and main spring housing) is two-fold; to improve the purchase that your hand has in gripping the firearm and as ornamentation. I have several different front strap treatments to offer; checkering, serrations, stippling, scallops and snakeskin. They all have something to offer. Each one's merits will be discussed below and compared to each other.

   Checkering

     Checkering is considered by most serious gunmen to be the "King" of the front strap treatments, both in traction offered and appearance. Checkering is created by cutting rows of intersecting 60-degree lines. The lines most frequently intersect at 90-degrees, which makes each point appear to be a miniature pyramid. Other patterns can be done (for example, 45 or 60 degrees) to give each point the appearance of a diamond, which is more commonly encountered in gun stock checkering.
     The two most common criticism of checkering is that it is abrasive to "cover" garments and is rough on tender hands. These are often sound arguments, depending on you and your pistol's purpose. To save yourself a lot of worry, try out a buddy's gun that is checkered and see how it feels to you. A gun checkered 20 LPI will offer the greatest traction, but be the most abrasive on hands and the most wearing to cover garments. Tender hands may prefer 40 LPI patterns and clothes will last longer, but you may find it less tractive than needed, when your hands are wet with perspiration, mud or blood.
     Checkering is commonly found in 5 different degrees of coarseness, specified in LPI (lines per inch). The coarsest (and having the most traction) is 20 LPI, followed by 25 LPI, 30 LPI, 40 LPI and finally 50 LPI (having the least traction). The most frequently encountered pattern on front straps and main spring housings is 20, 25 and 30 LPI. In my opinion, 40 and 50 LPI patterns are too fine to offer much traction and are used primarily as ornamentation and as a way to reduce glare.
     Combinations of two different line spacings can be done to modify the characteristics of each. The hybrid pattern most commonly done is 20 (vertical lines) by 30 (radial lines). I can also vary the coverage to better suit a particular application. For maximum traction in a concealed carry application, I can cut a pattern of 11 vertical lines and intersecting radial lines that only intersect the verticals. This would create a section of 20 lpi checkering only in the center-most section of the front strap with a surrounding area that is plain. It will still snag clothes, but not as bad as if fully checkered; but it will give a maximum traction surface to the grip.
     The rear of the slide, a magazine catch button and other small areas are the likely places to apply 40 and 50 LPI checkering. Unless the pistol is getting a welded-on magwell, I prefer to stop the checkering short of the bottom of the front strap, leaving a plain, snag-free front strap toe.

   Serrations

     Serrations are simply half a checkering job. On a front strap, serrations are the long lines that run vertically on the front strap, without any intersecting radial lines. Serrations also share the same spacing characteristics as checkering, as well as the same use for the different degrees of coarseness. Serrations do not offer quite as much traction in the hand as checkering, but are not as rough on cover garments. I personally find that 20 lpi serrations are adequate to give me good grip on the pistol. If you need to shift your grip, serrations may be found to "turn loose" easier than checkering. I machine my serrations to stop short of the bottom of the front strap, so as to not create a snag point there.      I have several patterns available to enhance the appearance of the pistol. I offer the traditional 11 line, 20 lpi pattern of equal length lines centered on the front strap. I can also offer a pattern with each line stopping shorter than the one next to it, creating a "double arrow" pattern. My personal favorite is a "cameo" pattern, which starts as the traditional 11-line pattern and is flanked on each side by 3 additional lines, each line .100" shorter on each end, than the adjacent line. I can also machine these patterns on flat main spring housings, but not on arched. The finer line per inch spacings share the same cosmetic and glare reduction purposes as does checkering and in this application, does the job equally well.

   Scallops

     Scallops are pretty new to the custom market. They are created by machining semi-circular slots in an almost overlapping staggered pattern that creates a texture to enhance the grip on the gun, but does not have the abrasive quality that checkering does. The gripping traction is similar to serrations, without the abrasion of checkering. There is no industry standard for scallop patterning and you'll find everybody does it a little bit differently. Some are fairly shallow and don't intersect closely, which gives a pretty "soft" feel. Other patterns are cut deeper and intersect more aggressively. They give more traction and can come closer to being a little bit "snaggy" to cover garments. This is only do-able to flat main spring housings.

   Snakeskin

     Snakeskin patterns vary in coarseness like their cousins, the scallops. The snakeskin design is created by making a series of very shallow plunge cuts with a center cutting end mill that is tilted at a shallow angle. The patterns can be varied in size and spacing to make it vary in how aggressively it grips and how it looks on individual surface areas. Like scallops and fancy serration patterns, snakeskin is only available on flat main spring housings.

   Stippling

     Some call stippling the poor man's checkering job, but done properly, it can lend an elegant appearance to the front strap. Stippling is achieved by striking a specially ground, pointed punch with a hammer, driving it into the front strap, creating a "dent", or upset area. This is repeated hundreds of times, until the area being stippled is completely covered. This may sound brutal, but is only done with a very light (often an 8-ounce) hammer, using a swing from the wrist. It is possible to create designs or patterns with the stippled area, but most customers choose to have a complete panel done to maximize the gripping surface available. Most stippling patterns are fairly easy on clothes. To me, it doesn't offer as much traction as20 lpi serrations, but is useable.

   John's Picks

     If you want to be able to hold onto you pistol with a soft, loose grip, even when you're hands are slick with sweat, oil or blood; 20 lpi checkering is the way to go. I personally would use it on any pistol deigned for match use or open carry in either Law Enforcement or Military applications. Your grip adhesion is almost as well off with 25 lines per inch and a little more suitable for concealed carry. If you are setting up a pistol for concealed carry, serrations, scallop and snakeskin all have similar degrees of adhesion, although they all depend on grip tension to adhere. Stippling's adhesion characteristics come in right behind the rest. Stippling, serrations and scallops all are relatively equal in terms of being snag-free to concealment garments. Snakeskin is a little rougher on garments, unless it's adequately deburred.      As far as appearance goes, I like the fancy serration patterns best and checkering a close second best. Stippling is okay; it's just never really appealed to me. I seen some stippled pistols that were really nice, but also seen some that the coverage was less than uniform and the "pits" were shallow and they left me cold. Any work that isn't executed properly looks bad, but poor stippling looks extra bad to me, for some reason. Scallops and snakeskin are pretty new, having only been around a couple of years at this time (Oct. 2004). They are pretty eye catching right now. I honestly don't know if they will stay in vogue forever. Checkering and serrations have stood the test of time and I don't see them falling out of favor.

   Front Straps: truing and high gripping

     Checkering, serrations, scallops and snakeskin are all machine-cut and hand finished in my shop. I invested heavily to be able to do much of the work by machine for two main reasons, as good as any man may be with a file, he will never be as uniform and consistent as a milling machine and every man's joints have a limited life span. I know of many pistolsmiths that suffer from the pain encountered in their wrists and elbows after a workout with the checkering file. The bottom line is that you, the customer benefit from getting a checkering job that is more uniform and perfect than ever. I get a few more years of useful life from my joints.      Before cutting checkering (or any other treatment) into your front strap, I measure the front strap to be sure there is enough thickness to cut the treatment that you want and to find any high or low places that may cause problems with the finished job. Once the front strap's condition is known and the frame is fixtured and squared in the milling machine, I make a very light cut over the entire surface of the front strap only as deep as to obtain a uniform flat surface to work from. If the customer wants the frame cut for a high grip front strap, I make this cut at the same time as truing. If a front strap's condition is not thick enough to cut with the requested treatment and retain full strength, I will work with the customer to select a satisfactory alternative.