Finish line in sight

After a quick cleanup, the joint proved to be very nicely done. And if you notice, the grain flows around the corner and continues on.

I am also pleased with the continuous flow in the grain on the other side:

A quick test to check the function – seems to work fine.

I thought the piece looked rather utilitarian, so I grabbed my Lie Nielsen beading tool and went to town. Just the front of the shelf – it is quite the difference between a crumb and a loaf of bread.. No need to overdo things.

I also countersunk and drilled holes for screws. If you countersink before you drill the hole, you will get perfect results. If you drill the hole first, there’s a good chance that the countersink will be star-shaped because the cutters of the countersink bit jumps around.

I applied some walnut oil to the piece to pop the grain and to give it some depth. I’ll apply beeswax afterwards, so the piece will be easy to clean. Even if I do not use power tools all that much, there will always be some dust accumulating.

Remember that area with raising grain where I had tearout? Look at how beautiful that part is once it got a bit of oil on it!

When the wood had soaked up the oil, I wiped the excess off and applied a liberal coat of beeswax. I then polished the wax after it had dried, and mounted the piece on the wall.

Conclusion

I screwed the shelf to the wall, next to my band saw. When needed, I can just grab it and go – certainly a lot more convenient than having the piece lying around on what ever free horizontal space available!

Here’s an overview of the band saw area:

The beading tool made for a nice touch on the shelf – such a small detail, but it elevates the piece from utilitarian and boring to something a bit nice.

And that concludes the article about my miter gauge holder. Hopefully, you have learned something – I sure did! And I do not believe we should hide our mistakes – it is okay to make them, and we learn valuable lessons in the process. I am not the first to cut dovetails in the wrong place, and I will not be the last. It seems that it is a rite of passage for any hand tool woodworker, as I have seen many others do the same thing.

Being successful is often a question of at which angle you look at it to gauge it…

Thank you for reading!