Myrtle Anniversary Shaker Table #6: Square Peg in a Round Hole (aka. Making Dowel)

As a little indulgence I’m going to use ebony dowel (disopyros sp.) for the joinery in the Anniversary Table. I purchased this small piece from Trend Timbers at the Sydney Wood Show which today I started forming into dowel.

In the past I’ve used a small lathe to produce dowel for a similar purchase (see rosewood turnings.) Although you can purchase high quality dowel plates, it’s actually not too hard to make your own. Today I’m going to use a shop made dowel plate from a tip from Hendrik Varju (from Passion for Wood.)

Simply take a spare metal bracket, a high quality drill bit, and drill the size you want. In this case ~10.5mm.

Being careful not to waste wood, I cut 11×11mm pieces. (The missing section was the test piece.)

Next you need to whittle or shave the piece to rough shape taking off the corners.

The dowel plate makes the final shape as you move the piece gently through with a big hammer.

Three down… seven to go. As always I’m happy to hear any comments or suggestions.

More pics and details at the blog.

-- Daniel - http://theloveofwood.blogspot.com/