Charlie - I do not use the V-tool on the horizontal edges. I use a chisel (or #1 gouge) to set the line and once you get any depth the V-tool doesn't work well. The reason is that the "wall" forces you to turn your V-tool sidewards much more than you ordinarily would, which takes too much off the flute that's there - so that side of that flute would be flattened much more than you'd round the other flutes.
What I do is use a flat gouge (maybe a #1 or a #2) to cut downward at an angle to round the flute and deepen the cut at the wall. A gouge with some sweep works better than a #1 because you're cutting along the grain. A #1 could cause splitting, but with a bit of manipulation, you can use it.
I only have 60* V-tools. Maybe if you had one with a smaller angle it would work. They make 45* V-tools.
I can't think of any other scaling issues on the fan but I haven't tried to make really big or really small fans. If you were going to put a drawer pull in the center, you might be forced to make that center half circle a certain size which might make if proportionally larger on a really small fan - but I'm just guessing here.
Mike
[That's one problem with tutorials. I would not have thought to discuss that particular cut but a beginner could have problems there. If I was teaching it in person, I'd demonstrate the cut or see that the student was having problems and demonstrate/discuss it.]
Last edited by Zahid Naqvi; 01-07-2009 at 12:51 PM.
Reason: fixed the text referenced by Mike below.
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