the humble house workshop #8: Narra, King of the forest, destroyer of cheap plane irons!

I wasn,t planning to write about this project, but as it,s my first experience with Philippine Narra wood and I just gotta tell you it,s amazing stuff. The colour is like fresh beef, the smell is sweet and the dust, even from a hand saw, gets into every crack and orrifice the human body posseses. Hate to think what would happen if you used a belt sander! The photos don,t do it justice, even if they were better than my cheap camera can achieve. I,m recycling a chair that I bought about 4 years ago, one of a pair that I was never happy with, turning it into a small box on stand to hold my copy of the Qur,an. Knocking it apart was easier said than done. Unbelievably they nailed the seat on to the rails through the top, although the rails themselves were mortise and tenoned to the legs. I,m thinking of useing the carved back as a photo frame.

The piece here is around 35mm x 25mm x 270mm for the base frame. Four of these and four shorter pieces were all I managed to get done before both my #5 and my block plane irons got totally blunt.

This stuff is also a great lesson in reading grain direction and no matter what I did I got some tearout. Lumberjock Daniels broken glass scraper idea is going to be put to the test on this job I assure you. Check out the grain on this panel. At almost 500mm x 500mm it,s one piece.

I won,t put any stain on this when its done, that would be a crime against nature on this beautiful wood, maybe just danish oil or a low sheen wipe on poly. With any luck the weather will hold and I can get it done this week, inshala.

-- if the hand is not working it is not a pure hand