<html> <body> Larry - A  follow-up thought - Al may be right about not needing clamping, but I may be a little less confident without some type of holding.  Your picture amply illustrates the issues of wire condition (looking pretty twisted) and various felt profiles, which can have a significant effect on how check functions with a particular tail shape. David Skolnik Hasitngs on Hudson, NY At 12:25 AM 9/12/2012, you wrote: <blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">I’m including an image of the original back check.  As you can see, the back check head quite large.  New ones (three different types shown) have a totally different physical dimension to the point that it’s beginning to look like it would be faster to simply recover the existing back check heads.   If I were to go that route  ........... and aside from getting the grain of the leather in the right direction  ............    is it critical to get the leather at a consistent tightness to get some reasonable checking effect??    A procedure involving a clothes pin has been suggested.  Comments??   <img src="cid:7.1.0.9.2.20120912092149.055f8120@optonline.net.1" width=644 height=484 alt="P9111268a">   </blockquote></body> </html>