James Mittlefehldt
05-08-2007, 5:36 PM
Subtitle; How I learned to Stop Worrying And Love The Hirsch
Like many on here I am feeling my way with this whole handtool thing, I have one advantage in that I never used power tools, so did not have to adapt in that manner. I have been really inspired of late by Popular Woodworking in general, and in particular by Adam Cherubini. So I have started to think outside the box a bit.
Firstly I have come to understand the value of "the right tool for the right job" but secondly and not always lessor I tend to subscribe to "any port in a storm"
So here is my problem, I have to cut four rabbets for the bottom of a dovetailed blanket box. I do not have a plough/plow plane, either of them. I have done this in the past with a Stanley router, 71 that is, and it served but was less than ideal, and these are the dreaded stopped rabbets, shudder.
So I said to myself, listen Jimbo, there has to be a better way, and in the depth of my thoughts, it occurred to me that a rabbet was nothing more than a long shallow mortise. HMMM that sounds interesting I thought.
So I went to the tool wall, and retrieved my metric equivalent of a half inch mortiseing chisel, ie the Hirsch 13 mm. I marked the bottom of the rabbet with a marking gauge, and then established the top by making a mark with the chisel, having done that I scribed the top line.
I purposely used a lighter mallet than I usually do for this sort of work, and marked a registration, for the end of the rabbet, Then I moved about a half inch forward lined up the trusty Hirsch and bang, pry etc till I got to the end. Then I used the same chisel to clear the chips out and took the Veritas Router plane with the V blade and proceeded to clean out the rabbet to the preferred depth, and voila stopped rabbet and a fairly clean looking one to, I hasten to add.
For all yoiu moterheads who may have wandered in to look at some threads, I got to thinking, never a good idea, and decided to time myself on the other long rabbet, so it is 38 inches long, half inch or thirteen mm wide, and about 3/8 deep more or less. Now I don`t know how long it takes to do the set up for something like that on those tailed tools, but it took me, exclusive of the lines with the marking gauge which were already done, ten minutes, honest I timed it, from two lines in the wood to a finished rabbet.
Take that Frederick Taylor.
So basking in my accomplishment, I turned my mind to something else, that is the rabbet on the edge to let the bottom boards into the sides, to say nothing of the ship lap joint I had to make, so how to do that. Well the ends of the boards were no problem, saw down to the appropriate depth, rough chip the wood with a chisel, and then finsh with a wooden skewed dado plane. however on the long sides, I couldn`t do this with a saw, and then I spied the Hirsch and said let`s try this.
So again I marked the line with a marking gauge, (Lee Valley round cutter type) then lined up the chisel whacked it and, frankly all it did was dent the wood, doubtless because the one side was open. So I angled it at forty five degrees more or less, and that worked handily. So once I got to the end I then had an edge to register the dado plane against and with a few strokes to clean it up it was done and looked neat.
So while I was doing the narrower board to make up the bottom my dear wife came out to the shop to see what was going on, and noting the black fingernail, scraped knuckle, and bandaid on my finger said with a sigh, "you look like Roy."
I smiled and said, "thanks," she rolled her eyes and went back in the house.
Serioulsy though, I learned a fair bit doing this and was amazed at given the right place to do it`s job how effective that skewed blade dado woody was. It was the first plane I ever got and it was responsible for pushing me down the slippery slope, but thats another story.
Of course the title should be Fun not run but you get the idea.
Like many on here I am feeling my way with this whole handtool thing, I have one advantage in that I never used power tools, so did not have to adapt in that manner. I have been really inspired of late by Popular Woodworking in general, and in particular by Adam Cherubini. So I have started to think outside the box a bit.
Firstly I have come to understand the value of "the right tool for the right job" but secondly and not always lessor I tend to subscribe to "any port in a storm"
So here is my problem, I have to cut four rabbets for the bottom of a dovetailed blanket box. I do not have a plough/plow plane, either of them. I have done this in the past with a Stanley router, 71 that is, and it served but was less than ideal, and these are the dreaded stopped rabbets, shudder.
So I said to myself, listen Jimbo, there has to be a better way, and in the depth of my thoughts, it occurred to me that a rabbet was nothing more than a long shallow mortise. HMMM that sounds interesting I thought.
So I went to the tool wall, and retrieved my metric equivalent of a half inch mortiseing chisel, ie the Hirsch 13 mm. I marked the bottom of the rabbet with a marking gauge, and then established the top by making a mark with the chisel, having done that I scribed the top line.
I purposely used a lighter mallet than I usually do for this sort of work, and marked a registration, for the end of the rabbet, Then I moved about a half inch forward lined up the trusty Hirsch and bang, pry etc till I got to the end. Then I used the same chisel to clear the chips out and took the Veritas Router plane with the V blade and proceeded to clean out the rabbet to the preferred depth, and voila stopped rabbet and a fairly clean looking one to, I hasten to add.
For all yoiu moterheads who may have wandered in to look at some threads, I got to thinking, never a good idea, and decided to time myself on the other long rabbet, so it is 38 inches long, half inch or thirteen mm wide, and about 3/8 deep more or less. Now I don`t know how long it takes to do the set up for something like that on those tailed tools, but it took me, exclusive of the lines with the marking gauge which were already done, ten minutes, honest I timed it, from two lines in the wood to a finished rabbet.
Take that Frederick Taylor.
So basking in my accomplishment, I turned my mind to something else, that is the rabbet on the edge to let the bottom boards into the sides, to say nothing of the ship lap joint I had to make, so how to do that. Well the ends of the boards were no problem, saw down to the appropriate depth, rough chip the wood with a chisel, and then finsh with a wooden skewed dado plane. however on the long sides, I couldn`t do this with a saw, and then I spied the Hirsch and said let`s try this.
So again I marked the line with a marking gauge, (Lee Valley round cutter type) then lined up the chisel whacked it and, frankly all it did was dent the wood, doubtless because the one side was open. So I angled it at forty five degrees more or less, and that worked handily. So once I got to the end I then had an edge to register the dado plane against and with a few strokes to clean it up it was done and looked neat.
So while I was doing the narrower board to make up the bottom my dear wife came out to the shop to see what was going on, and noting the black fingernail, scraped knuckle, and bandaid on my finger said with a sigh, "you look like Roy."
I smiled and said, "thanks," she rolled her eyes and went back in the house.
Serioulsy though, I learned a fair bit doing this and was amazed at given the right place to do it`s job how effective that skewed blade dado woody was. It was the first plane I ever got and it was responsible for pushing me down the slippery slope, but thats another story.
Of course the title should be Fun not run but you get the idea.