As in to work. I posted last week that I did my first dados by hand. I was getting some good success and with the help I received here I practiced several more and decided what the hell lets build something. I chose to make a very simple hanging shelf from the "I can do that" series in the April Popular Woodworking. Link to it here: http://www.popularwoodworking.com/ar...anging-shelves. They just nailed it together but I chose to add a 1/2 inch to the 3 shelves and make 1/4 inch dados for the shelves. The article used 3 1/2 dimensioned poplar from the borg. I had a 3 1/2 pine board so I figured that will do. This would be a nothing easy thing on the table saw but that would not be what we want to read about here so I chose all hand tools for this. My test dados were all in cherry and went well. The pine is chipping and cracking like crazy. I am guessing that my tools are still not sharp enough and I am probably rushing a little and trying to bite off more than I should. I was able to dimension the stock easily with my new LV LA jack (man is that sweet) and my just made shooting board. The problem is in the dados. Just chipping like crazy. Striking the line with a knife and cutting the depth with the cc carcass saw goes OK. The 70 1/2 is having all of the problems. The bottom of the dado is just not as smooth as the cherry was giving me. I know you need sharp tools for pine but this is giving me very bad results. As a test I did another dado in the cherry board. It went well. I could tell the 70 1/2 was a little duller but it still cut a nice smooth bottom in the cherry. I guess this is just the way it is with pine??? I'll sharpen again and give it another go in the morning but would love to know if this is the norm for pine.....Thanks, John...