spb
Nordic Pine
I decided I'd had enough of thicknessing 1200x350 boards by hand, and went looking for something else to do for a while. My brother had a birthday just before the lockdown easing, and had asked for a chopping board. So, we have an unnecessarily detailed and boring thread for everyone's first woodworking project. At least it's not the run up to Christmas, when every woodworker on YouTube is batching them out for gifts (doesn't everyone they know already have one?), and maybe hand-carving the groove around the edge (and the inevitable mishaps and figuring things out as I go along) will make it slightly different.
First, I planed up a piece of maple, and...
Oh dear. The heartwood I could see before planing, but those two marks weren't nearly so obvious on the sawn face. The other side had even more heartwood, and a much bigger dark streak across it. It feels odd to be rejecting a piece for not having enough sapwood, but every timber has its quirks and this is maple's.
Anyway, I decided to use this one for practice cutting the groove - since it's not something I've done before - and it can be a spare one at home. So, I gauged a line 15mm from the edge, and started gouging out a groove centred on it.
At this point I learned a lesson: pay attention to the square edge of the board, and where your knuckles are in relation to it.
At this point I wrapped some masking tape around my fingers to prevent any repeats, which worked rather well.
Given the amount of resistance it had put up when planing - maybe there's a reason they call it hard maple - I was expecting the carving to be hard work. It was actually remarkably pleasant, both along and across the grain. It requires a firm pressure, but it's completely consistent and smooth to work with, even with the cheap gouge from a cheap starter set.
Fairly soon I had a groove on one end that I thought looked like the right size, but wasn't particularly straight. Obviously so, since the first cut I'd made had obliterated the gauge line and it was all done by eye from then on.
At this point I decided it would be much more sensible to mark the two edges of the groove, so I set a mortice gauge from it, and marked around the rest of the board. Unsurprisingly, that worked a lot better.
At that point, I was informed it was dinner time and packed up for the night.
I went back to the workshop today, took a much closer look at the sawn board, then cut and planed a piece from the opposite end. This is the point where I have to confess to cheating - I used a circular saw and mitre saw to crosscut and square the ends, because I did not fancy planing across the end grain on something this hard. That was the only use of electrics, though. Anyway, the second piece looked much better, so with the mortice gauge still set from the trial piece, I marked it up around the edges.
Working to those lines, unsurprisingly, gave much straighter grooves, and I soon had a set that I was happy with on the four sides.
It's remarkable sometimes how these tools work - the gouge I'm using is much narrower than the groove I want, as I don't have one close to the right size, and there's nothing even approximating a flat reference surface on it. Still, with nothing but a steady pushing motion, the shape of the bevel guides it in a remarkably straight line, and just a slight adjustment to the angle you hold the handle keeps it dead on the gauge line; no pulling or pushing from side to side required. Again when cleaning up the centre of the groove, the bevel just rides over the surface and takes off any high spots. I think that's why I always reach for the hand tools first; they can just do what you mean, working completely by feel, in a way that machinery never will.
Now, what to do at the corners. For the inside edges it's obvious; just carve through from both sides and let them intersect. For the outside edges it wasn't so clear, so I went back to the trial piece. The first thing I tried was to just go in at a steepish angle from both directions, as close to the corner as I could. That gave a slightly rounded corner, which I actually rather liked, so that's what I did.
Then it was a final smoothing for the surface, a small chamfer on all the edges, and a card scraper for a few last bits of tidy-up.
I hope the recipient doesn't read here, as he's not going to get it until the weekend. I'd like to think I'd have recognised him if he'd posted, though, so I'll take the chance.
First, I planed up a piece of maple, and...
Oh dear. The heartwood I could see before planing, but those two marks weren't nearly so obvious on the sawn face. The other side had even more heartwood, and a much bigger dark streak across it. It feels odd to be rejecting a piece for not having enough sapwood, but every timber has its quirks and this is maple's.
Anyway, I decided to use this one for practice cutting the groove - since it's not something I've done before - and it can be a spare one at home. So, I gauged a line 15mm from the edge, and started gouging out a groove centred on it.
At this point I learned a lesson: pay attention to the square edge of the board, and where your knuckles are in relation to it.
At this point I wrapped some masking tape around my fingers to prevent any repeats, which worked rather well.
Given the amount of resistance it had put up when planing - maybe there's a reason they call it hard maple - I was expecting the carving to be hard work. It was actually remarkably pleasant, both along and across the grain. It requires a firm pressure, but it's completely consistent and smooth to work with, even with the cheap gouge from a cheap starter set.
Fairly soon I had a groove on one end that I thought looked like the right size, but wasn't particularly straight. Obviously so, since the first cut I'd made had obliterated the gauge line and it was all done by eye from then on.
At this point I decided it would be much more sensible to mark the two edges of the groove, so I set a mortice gauge from it, and marked around the rest of the board. Unsurprisingly, that worked a lot better.
At that point, I was informed it was dinner time and packed up for the night.
I went back to the workshop today, took a much closer look at the sawn board, then cut and planed a piece from the opposite end. This is the point where I have to confess to cheating - I used a circular saw and mitre saw to crosscut and square the ends, because I did not fancy planing across the end grain on something this hard. That was the only use of electrics, though. Anyway, the second piece looked much better, so with the mortice gauge still set from the trial piece, I marked it up around the edges.
Working to those lines, unsurprisingly, gave much straighter grooves, and I soon had a set that I was happy with on the four sides.
It's remarkable sometimes how these tools work - the gouge I'm using is much narrower than the groove I want, as I don't have one close to the right size, and there's nothing even approximating a flat reference surface on it. Still, with nothing but a steady pushing motion, the shape of the bevel guides it in a remarkably straight line, and just a slight adjustment to the angle you hold the handle keeps it dead on the gauge line; no pulling or pushing from side to side required. Again when cleaning up the centre of the groove, the bevel just rides over the surface and takes off any high spots. I think that's why I always reach for the hand tools first; they can just do what you mean, working completely by feel, in a way that machinery never will.
Now, what to do at the corners. For the inside edges it's obvious; just carve through from both sides and let them intersect. For the outside edges it wasn't so clear, so I went back to the trial piece. The first thing I tried was to just go in at a steepish angle from both directions, as close to the corner as I could. That gave a slightly rounded corner, which I actually rather liked, so that's what I did.
Then it was a final smoothing for the surface, a small chamfer on all the edges, and a card scraper for a few last bits of tidy-up.
I hope the recipient doesn't read here, as he's not going to get it until the weekend. I'd like to think I'd have recognised him if he'd posted, though, so I'll take the chance.
