A long time ago, in a basement far, far away

[shavingCanuck]

That's the other thing I was thinking it might be. I just picked up the maple as some off cuts in the "destined for fireplace" pile. There were a couple that were fairly straight grained but not all. Because they were pulled out of the fireplace pile they also weren't intended for this use so the dimensions weren't uniform, I simply tried to make them close with a block plane.

I think those things in concert caused some of them to warp a little and possibly bend while going through the plate. I'll have to pay more attention to the roughing in the future.

Thanks
Andy

[Jameel Abraham]

I use ash for making pegs with the L-N plate. Riving will get you a straight piece, but to speed the process up (especially when you need a lot of them for a bench) I cull the straightest-grained pieces from the stack (pretty easy with ash), split off one edge, joint and then saw my pieces from that edge. You don't have to rive every piece if the grain is straight across the boards. This is how lots of musical instrument wood is sawn. The bench is coming along nicely, Andy.

[Peter Tremblay]

Great tip.

Thanks Jameel

Peter

[shavingCanuck]

So I attached the back slab to the bench base just using the two tenons at the top of the legs (the wirling demon of death and dispair was used and scares the s$%t out of me on occasion), I'll attach some pictures and explain why later as I'm currently at work.

I've also glued on the dog strip after screwing up another one when my bandsaw decided to seriously drift, which had never happened to me before but I think one of the guides was pushing on the blade when I adjusted the height... oh well, what's another $50 piece of wood... fun...

As a result of those two incidents I ended up hollowing out the cavity for the "slide" over the last couple of days using a handsaw, chisel and gouge. Someone mentioned a drunk beaver here earlier and that's pretty much what the thing looks like currently but my father just purchased me a #3 straight gouge and #5 bent gouge to try to clean it up a bit (early Christmas gifts ).

So, after much ado here is my question. how the heck do you sharpen these puppies? I've got the bevel all shiny and mirror like doing the freehand, rotating shimmy but I have absolutely no idea how to sharpen the other side properly. He also picked me up a 4k slip stone but I don't know if I'm using it properly or just scraping the hell out of the stone.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, video of people doing it would also help.

Thanks
Andy

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

shavingCanuck said:

---

So, after much ado here is my question. how the heck do you sharpen these puppie? I've got the bevel all shiny and mirror like doing the freehand, rotating shimmy but I have absolutely no idea how to sharpen the other side properly. He also picked me up a 4k slip stone but I don't know if I'm using it properly or just scraping the hell out of the stone.

---

This is how I sharpen the inside of gouges. Find something round the same size or slightly smaller. For small gouges, drill rod or screwdriver bodies work well. Large dowels and PVC pipe work for larger items. You may have to use your lathe or a H&R plane to make something round. Anyway, once you find your base, wrap it with the appropriate grit of sandpaper. I start with 220 aluminum oxide. Use a piston like action and rotate while you do it. Unless the chisel is in rough shape, this step takes less than a minute. Move up through higher grits. Good luck.

[shavingCanuck]

I was wondering if that is the way I would have to go. Now I have to find something the correct diameter. If I'm not using sandpaper how do the water cones seem to work? and how do you guys go about holding the gouge and stone? both in hand? one clamped?

As you can tell I've never even carved my initials in a stall door so I'm a little new to it. As such are there any good videos, books or courses that people would suggest.

Thanks
Andy

[Clay Dowling]

Love the maple-leaf detail on the vise slide there. Although I'd probably have to make it a winged wheel, owing to local loyalties.

[shavingCanuck]

Don't get it twisted now! I'm no Toronto Maple Leafs fan, although the wife and her family are . I'll stick with the Senators for now but I used to be a big Oilers fan when I lived there.

Believe it or not I'm more of an NFL guy then hockey guy (great, now I'm going to get kicked out of my own country ). Unfortunately my 49ers haven't been doing well for the last couple of years, hopefully Iron Mike will straighten them out. I haven't decided yet but I usually take tomorrow off to watch the games even without the requisite turkey, although I might have to PVR them this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

Andy

[shavingCanuck]

Actually, on the Maple Leaf tilt, I wonder how a blue bench would've looked

[Charles Jackson III]

Great tread!