Stipple Dojo

Ok guys, so here it is. It can be easy to make undercuts look good but that's just half the battle. It needs to be comfortable as well as functional. Ergonomics should be above everything else when designing your undercuts. Before I get into the downfalls of these designs, let's discuss the purpose of the undercuts. There are 2 undercuts. You have the single undercut for your strong hand and then you have the secondary undercut for your support hand.

Single undercut. There are 3 elements to a good single undercut. Well 4 but.....

1. Taking the undercut higher. This gets the strong hand higher up on the gun allowing you to get even closer to the bore axis. And we all know the higher up on the gun, the more your able to control that muzzle rise. However, you have to be careful not to take it up too high as it can actually create some issues.

2. Move it forward. When done right, the single undercut should get rid of the dreaded glock knuckle. The knuckle on your middle finger can start to hurt after a lot of shooting due to the way glock shapes their undercut. It doesn't leave much breathing room for the finger to move freely in there and creates hard contact points with your finger. So you have to push the single undercut toward the front end of the frame. This will prevent your knuckle from biting into the frame while shooting. I remember I had a 2 day course and the knuckle on my middle finger was actually bruised by the end of Sunday.

3. You MUST round off the edges. Most people just leave hard and sharp edges on their undercuts. It may look very clean and precise but that's as far as it goes. This is just fine for the average shooter who is shooting 100 rounds at the range but maybe even then, the shooter will experience some discomfort. But if you plan on shooting more than a couple rounds or plan on ever drawing from the holster, you will hate those sharp edges. When drawing from the holster, your middle finger not only hits against the side of the undercut, but it also slides under and around the other side to establish your grip. THIS is when you need those edges to be rounded otherwise your knuckle is just sliding on a hard edge. You don't want to anticipate any discomfort or pain during your draw. If you have a gun that bruises your knuckle at the end of each class or training session, you won't enjoy shooting your gun which will eventually lead to you either keeping that gun in the safe or even just selling it.

Double/Secondary undercut. There's only one thing to worry about here and that's don't take it up too high. You don't want it too thin. After that, it just comes to personal preference on design. Some people leave the edges as they are and some people contour them for added comfort. I prefer to contour those edges as well simply because it's part of my current design at the moment and it adds a little more comfort. Leaving the edges straight aren't terribly uncomfortable but for some, it may not feel comfortable.

So with all that being said... let's go over what's wrong with each of these.

#1 - Starting with the single undercut. It looks great as far as being very straight and defined. But knowing what we know now, it's not going to be comfortable at all. It's up too high making it a little too thin and potentially introducing some flex while at the same time trapping your finger in a very confined space and making that glock knuckle even worse. Then the drop off is too steep and is also too sharp. It's hard to tell from a picture but if it's not pushed out far enough, this is going to make the Glock knuckle issue even worse. The cut is just too straight across as well. Because of this, he can't contour the edges now. If he would've kept the cut lower, then he would have room to contour the left and right side of the undercut. He would end up with that defined line in the same place it is now. But this time the actual undercut would be thicker in the bulk of the center and barely "thin" out near the contours. Now on to the secondary undercut. Simply put, it's just too thin. And because both cuts are too thin, you're just gonna introduce a lot of flex into the entire trigger guard.

#2 - This is actually a very good looking design. I have no complaints about it and I've done damn near the same design in the past. But there's one main reason I no longer cut that beautiful 45 degree angle into the single undercut. Although it's a joy to look at, you are still creating a very hard edge during the draw. Your middle finger will not feel good sliding under the trigger guard and around the other side to establish that nice grip. If he would've just made this a rounded edge versus a 45 angle, it would be perfect. Also, you can see how his single undercut doesn't have that steep drop off angle. That's going to contribute to the comfort of the undercut as well.

#3 - This was almost a good undercut. He needs to push it out further to give that finger more room. He did a good job of not taking it up too high. And because of that, he can now make the ergonomics of it even better while also adding some style to it. He has plenty of material to contour those edges upwards for a nice smooth feeling during the draw without bringing the potential of flexing into the equation. The undercut would appear too thin but in reality, it's just an illusion. Speaking from the left side to the right side of the undercut... the center would be the same thickness you see there now. The edges would then have enough room to contour upwards and if he even wanted to, he could bring that edge right up against the area where it starts to wrap up and around to the inside of the trigger guard. Again, it would appear thin but it wouldn't actually be thin and wouldn't even have flex.

#4 - I don't have much to complain about for this one. The drop off angle can mayyyyyybe be a bit more flatter but I think it might be good. Again, it's hard to tell from photos sometimes. I would again just say to contour the single undercut more and this would be good to go.

As you may start seeing, most stipplers won't properly contour their single undercuts. They may look beautiful but they are definitely not ergonomic and won't give you a pleasant shooting experience. Hopefully I did a good job explaining all this. These very subtle but important details are what I go over in my classes and much more in depth. There are actually more elements that I didn't discuss but this would turn into a whole dissertation. There is another important detail about ALL of these that I won't discuss. Member number #4? It makes a huge difference in the overall feel of the frame. But you must take your shoes off and enter the dojo for that one ;)