Earlier, I made a smaller chisel rack for my Ashley Iles butt chisels. I decided to follow the same approach for my bench chisels. The butt chisel rack has proven to be really handy when I am working; I can just toss it on the bench and have a dedicated place for my chisels while I am working.

I keep the chisels in a drawer when not in use, but I have a few ideas for some sort of holder for the racks if I want to have them “on display” on the wall. Or perhaps a holder for the bench, keeping the chisels within reach all the time. Who knows – I will probably never ever be “finished” with my shop layout. There’s always another idea brewing for another way to do things or how to organize stuff. And let me tell you – the journey so far has been quite fun!

A quick note here – on shop infrastructure projects, I am often trying new stuff. I am also not very picky about the wood I use. While I strive to do my best, I have a much lower tolerance for discrepancies when I work on these kinds of projects. This particular project is no different. Still – I think there’s still things to learn here, and I do think my readers enjoy my content. Lots of pictures, self-satirical writings… Let me know if you want anything else!

Milling stock

To start the process, I grabbed a board of cherry wood which I have milled myself from a piece of a log I got hold of. Having a big band saw is a great asset, because I could just strike a line and rip off the live edge freehand, something a table saw cannot do safely unless it has a sliding bed or a humongous sled is used. The board was jointed on one face, back when I milled the log, giving me options for thickness down the line.

After ripping off the live edge, I jointed the edge with my #7 hand plane. This gave me two reference faces.

Dead. Square!

I measured for two 40cm lengths, avoiding difficult areas. There are two knots that I cannot get by, so they will have to be dealt with. More on that soon.

When working with rough sawn lumber, one needs to be observant of cracks and other defects. As shown below, a crack had to be removed and a small knot would interfere with the dovetails.

The reference edge was then placed against the fence and the plank ripped further down.

Here’s a short video showing me ripping a board:

The camera was partly in the way, so I had to switch side mid cut. Which isn’t a problem on a band saw, but DO NOT try to do that with a table saw!

Now, I COULD hook up the planer/thicknesser to the dust system, change the machine over from jointer to thicknessing then linger around, sending the boards through over and over and over and over again, negating snipe, noise and so on.

Or I could do the sensible thing and just rip off the excess on the band saw, which also gives me USEFUL material from the waste. Either useful for projects or as fuel for our fire pan where we often enjoy barbecuing sausages, steaks, hamburgers or other delicious nomnom.

Here’s a shot of the waste – imagine this being a pile of planer chips! I doubt I will find any use for this, but at least I can barbecue a few bacon cheese sandwiches over the embers from this (plus what ever else is to be found in the offcut bin. For embers, not for eatin’.). Or a pizza. We’ve bought a pizza oven for the fire pan…. Why am I talking about food? Back to woodworking!

I then cut the four sides for the rack. The Veritas crosscut back saw does this REALLY fast!

Let us take a look at the procedure:

• Strike lines and follow them during the cut. “Drop the heel” on the saw, and you are going to cut dead square. This means that you saw more and more “upwards” as the heel of the saw drops down. The front of the saw then automagically follows. Nearing the end of the cut, you level off the saw and the last stroke should be more or less straight across.
• Shoot the sawn edge. The middle picture shows the end grain straight off of the saw. I start by planing a small chamfer on the exit side, which is the reference edge that goes against the fence on the shooting board / bench hook (I need to build a dedicated shooting board….). This chamfer prevents blowout of the fibres
• The first stroke shows that I was not dead plumb with my sawing, but not very far off!
• 5 strokes later, and the edge was dead smooth, straight and at 90° to the reference edge and the reference face.
• Not to mention: I was DEAD ON at 40cm (about 15 ⁹/₁₆”).

Rinse and repeat for all the other edges, and presto! I had four identical pieces ready.

The pieces still need to be planed and thicknessed to final dimensions, since only one face is planed. But first, there are some cracks to attend to.

Next page please!