ken hatch
10-08-2018, 2:43 PM
The Honey Locust seat blank is out of the clamps and I marked it off using the seat template I made Saturday. After marking I trimmed the blank close to the line with the bandsaw. Now it is drawknife, spokeshave, and #5 to smooth the edge. I expect I will put a heavy chamfer on the front and side edges, undecided on the back edge, before moving on to drilling and reaming the leg mortises. I haven't a clue if Honey Locust will make a good, long lasting seat or if it will even survive knocking the legs home. If it doesn't it will not be the first seat blank to split. That's life.
The seat edges being trued and smoothed:
394651
I need to go through the wood pile to decide on the leg blanks. Right now I'm thinking either Beech, Red Oak or White Oak all of which I believe are in the wood pile. The Honey Locust in the wood pile has grain that is too swirly to make good legs. Once the leg wood is picked then the next decisions are the shape, round, octagon, or tapered and which way, and done with the lathe, plane, drawknife, spokeshave, or some combination of one or more.
All the options are half the fun because there really isn't a correct one.
BTW, have I ever told you how much I love the portable Moravian bench with the Lake Erie wood screw vise? For as light as it is and portable, it is almost as stable as the main bench. The only time the main bench is better is when sawing crosswise across the bench. Then you can feel the weight difference.
I sure will be glad when the woodstore comes through with my 12/4 Ash so I can make the base for a shop sized Moravian bench. The wood screw is here, the Beech slab is finished. All I need is 30 or so board feet of Ash to finish that sucker off. A couple of weeks max if I can get my hands on the wood.
ken
The seat edges being trued and smoothed:
394651
I need to go through the wood pile to decide on the leg blanks. Right now I'm thinking either Beech, Red Oak or White Oak all of which I believe are in the wood pile. The Honey Locust in the wood pile has grain that is too swirly to make good legs. Once the leg wood is picked then the next decisions are the shape, round, octagon, or tapered and which way, and done with the lathe, plane, drawknife, spokeshave, or some combination of one or more.
All the options are half the fun because there really isn't a correct one.
BTW, have I ever told you how much I love the portable Moravian bench with the Lake Erie wood screw vise? For as light as it is and portable, it is almost as stable as the main bench. The only time the main bench is better is when sawing crosswise across the bench. Then you can feel the weight difference.
I sure will be glad when the woodstore comes through with my 12/4 Ash so I can make the base for a shop sized Moravian bench. The wood screw is here, the Beech slab is finished. All I need is 30 or so board feet of Ash to finish that sucker off. A couple of weeks max if I can get my hands on the wood.
ken