THE FINAL PROCEDURE - CUTTING SLOT RAMPS
Last night was a long one. I set out to cut the slot ramps and I didn't anticipate that it was going to take me that long - Little did I know.
First I cut the sides of the ramps with a dovetail rip saw. Then I set out to pare the waste away from the ramps. There is not really that much wood to get rid of but, what I hadn't taken into consideration was that I was going to be cutting through end grain of some very dense wood. The chisels I have are new; All but one, the 3/4" I used for paring the slots, have never been used before. This was their maiden voyage. So I set out to flatten the backs and put a keen edge on all of them. Then I went to work with the 3/8". All went well but after a couple of dozen shavings the chisel had dulled a little and was so tough to drive it through the wood.
I thought maybe a smaller size would be easier so I tried the 1/4", only to realize that size didn't really made that much difference, only sharpening did. So, I went back to the 3/8", sharpened it and continued, resharpening every time the edge went a little.
Once I got down, close to the final shape I switched to a 1/2" in order to get the shavings as even a possible, and finished off both the sides and the bottoms of the ramps with that.
When I was done, the knuckles on my index finger were all chewed up from rubbing them against the sharp edge of the face veneer and it was past midnight.
First I cut the sides of the ramps with a dovetail rip saw. Then I set out to pare the waste away from the ramps. There is not really that much wood to get rid of but, what I hadn't taken into consideration was that I was going to be cutting through end grain of some very dense wood. The chisels I have are new; All but one, the 3/4" I used for paring the slots, have never been used before. This was their maiden voyage. So I set out to flatten the backs and put a keen edge on all of them. Then I went to work with the 3/8". All went well but after a couple of dozen shavings the chisel had dulled a little and was so tough to drive it through the wood.
I thought maybe a smaller size would be easier so I tried the 1/4", only to realize that size didn't really made that much difference, only sharpening did. So, I went back to the 3/8", sharpened it and continued, resharpening every time the edge went a little.
Once I got down, close to the final shape I switched to a 1/2" in order to get the shavings as even a possible, and finished off both the sides and the bottoms of the ramps with that.
When I was done, the knuckles on my index finger were all chewed up from rubbing them against the sharp edge of the face veneer and it was past midnight.
CUTTING SLOT RAMPS
PARING SLOT RAMPS
THE FINISHED HEAD
THE FINISHED HEAD
No comments:
Post a Comment