Reset and repeat

I came to the realization that my initial approach would not really look all that good. Two tails look nice – but if the dovetails are mitered, then there will be only one feeble pin. It did not look good. I could of course make very thin pins, but it was too late since one dovetail joint was cut – and I had my hands full with the mitered dovetails anyway. So I decided to make the two tails into one.

It was not the best idea. More on that later.

First, I cut most of the waste with a coping saw:

Then a butt chisel cleaned up to the line. I make a slight undercut so that I ensure that the joint lines are crisp.

Here’s how I held the tail board while sawing:

Good sawing technique and sneaking up to my lines.

Rinse and repeat for the other joints.

With the wider, mitered dovetails made, it was time for the bottom panel.

The bottom panel

I resawed a piece of white oak to get book matched pieces for the back panel. I planed one face, ripped off a board, planed the sawn surface and ripped again. I got two 6mm (¹/₄”) thick boards, plus a small sliver that I tossed in the firewood bin.

I planed and scraped the opposite sides of the boards and matched them up. You might see a faint line going across – this is the final length.

I “closed the book” and clamped the boards in the vise. Two clamps ensured that the “spine” of the book is closed and tight. My No. 7 jointer plane rendered the joint surfaces dead straight. They were pretty close to dead square, but jointing boards like this makes a 90° edge irrelevant. If I were to plane at 87°, when I “close the book” one edge will be 87° – but the other will be 93°, for a total of 180°. We strive to be square, but in this case it really does not matter.

I taped the boards together and spread a moderate amount of glue along the joint. The goal is to make a “film” of glue on both surfaces, not slather glue around so that it oozes out like mayo on a shrimp sandwich! A No. 4 plane is used as a letter weight to hold the panels while I spread the glue.

Afterwards, I put masking tape across the joint, pulling the tape taught. This acts like a clamp and pulls the joint closed. A length of masking tape along the joint line ensures that I don’t accidentally glue the thing to my bench.

Having an assortment of hand planes can be useful in many ways! I placed my winding sticks on the panel and weighted it down using my biggest hand planes. From left to right: No. 7, No. 6, No. 5¹/₂ and my dad’s No. 5. The last one is very special to me!

After a couple of hours, I removed the masking tape and planed and scraped both sides of the panel. The joint was perfect – if you look near the bottom of the following image, you might think that there’s a gap. Wrong! It’s just that the left part is slightly thicker. You may also notice that there are some band saw marks on the upper left part of the image. Correct. That area is eeever so slightly thinner than the rest. This is the back of the panel, so I do not care if it isn’t dead flat. I just scraped the area smooth. It is good enough, because that area will seldom be seen. I made sure that the other side was pristine, though. I’m going to see that side, after all.

I cut the panel to rough length on the band saw. To get to final length, I used a hand plane.

Using a large combination square, I made a pencil line to mark where to plane to in order to square the sides to each other. I started with the end grain sides, in case of tearouts / splits.

The panel was a tad too wide, so I sawed off most of the waste using my Veritas panel saw with rip cut pattern. It leaves a very nice surface, but I always go to final dimension using hand planes.

Using my Veritas skewed block plane, I planed the long grain edges. The fence on the plane kept me dead square, and it steadied the plane nicely. This plane is incredibly versatile and a great asset in the shop!

I needed to make a small rebate on the perimeter of the panel, so that it would fit inside the dadoes I made earlier. The panel is 6mm (¹/₄”), but the dadoes are 5mm (about ³/₁₆”).

A perfect job for the Veritas skew block plane! But since the fence that came with it does not reach all the way across, I had to make a custom fence. Which is one of the features on this plane.

A piece of quarter sawn white oak from the fire wood bin was quickly transformed into a thick fence, capable of reaching all the way across.

I needed a 4mm wide rebate, which was easy to set up like so:

I started with the end grain sides – the scoring wheel did its job swimmingly, and no tearout happened. With the rebate done, I made a slight chamfer on the top side of the panel edges. This ensures that the panel will slide easily into the dadoes, and it prevents damage to the end grain edges.

I then assembled the tray and cut two pieces of teak to length. They will be holders for the chisels, just like in the small chisel tray. I checked that my Big Boy chisel will fit too. It’s 50mm – 2” wide! I just had to have one… Great for flipping burgers or cooking pizza’s, should my woodworking interest fade…

I had a piece left over from the small chisel tray, that had the semi-circular cutouts for the handles. I used a 30mm Forstner bit to make those – a row of holes, then rip in two. Voilà!

I marked the edges of the holes on the square piece that will receive the blades of the chisels. Using calipers, I marked the center of each hole.

I then measured each chisel. By dividing the with in two, I got the distance needed to either side of the center mark (plus some wiggle room). I marked the depth of the cutouts (slightly more than the thickness of the chisel blades) and cut to the lines.

Using a chisel, I split off the majority of the waste. By placing the chisel in the depth mark and “aiming skywards”, this was a quick job.

I refined the depth of the cutouts with a router plane, which leaves a pristine surface.

The last job: squaring the edges of each cutout. By placing the chisel on the edge and sliding the combination square up to it, I ensured that I was dead square across. The Ashley Iles butt chisels are wonderful for such occasions, as it is extremely easy to “feel for plumb”. The short length also makes it easier to do fine detail work, as I have the end of the chisel in my peripheral sight while focusing on the edge of the chisel.

With that done, I started work on the divider for the Big Boy Chisel compartment.

Next page, if you please, James!