Hand Tools #1: Watching Paint Dry

While I was watching the top coat paint dry on my shutters,

(the acrylic based topcoat dries a good deal faster than the oil based primer!)

I got this crazy idea in my head to start working with hand tools. So I got out my planes and chisels and my pull saw and started hacking away at some pine I had laying around the shop.

At one point, (it must have been the caffiene in the coffee ice cream,) I dug up my copy of “Joinery Basics” by Sam Allen, and read his instructions on how to cut dovetails. I figured, I have to start practicing, if I am ever going to move forward.

The first set have fairly wide tails; I was using the angled rule method and set my tails to be the same width as the plank.

The second set I “winged” it and used a mark down the middle of the end grain of one of the board as a reference, and created a set of marks across the end grain of the pin board.

I used a 1:6 angle as recommended by Sam Allen for soft woods.

One of the requirements I set for myself for this exercise was to cut the board in half with the pull saw, true up the end grain with a block plane, and shape the wood with a smoothing plane.

I post this mainly for those of us who have a ways to go in our skills practice, and maybe, if I can encourage another person to “go for it” it will be worthwhile.

-- John