Dashing Through The Snow -
So Christmas breakfast went off without a hitch. We opened much presents and then had a bit of a lull between the breakfast gathering and when we head off to the brother-in-law's house for dinner/dessert later. Thus, I snuck out to the garage for some "me time". Okay, really it was all about my Diva.
Enough with the small talk, we both know why we're here, let's get down to business. I needed to trim the back of the neck to thickness as well as the headstock thickness. I did resaw my headstock maple cap down to a reasonable thickness, roughly 3/8. Do some maths, and then mark out a line to trim the headstock down and the back of the neck. We now have something that looks like this -
Again, I err'd on the side of caution, leaving plenty of meat up to the line. I'll bring it to the line with the shinto before we start carving. I left a volute, because they look cool, so it's still kinda rough cut up there. Don't judge me. I had the 1/2" resaw blade on it, which, on my bandsaw doesn't like to turn corners very well. So yeah, it ain't pretty, just gimme some time. But, this puts my neck blank rough cut to thickness on the back and rough tapered down the length. It's time to start shaping!
Capping Off The Day -
So then I figured it might be a good idea to get the top glued up so it has time to dry while I'm off finishing up Christmas duties. I want to rough cut it to shape, so it needs to be glued up. Mostly I just wanna look at as a whole top, instead of two halves.
Sooo......gab the ol' #5 out of the till (shameless humble brag of my plane till) -
The astute among you will notice that my #6 don't fit. Pro Tip, don't build your plane till until you actually have all your planes.
Get the edges squared up and in the end vice on that rickety old Harbor Freight workbench and start jointing these up -
Small aside here. I bought this #5 a while back for like $50 plus shipping. It was in "user, unrestored condition", so it fit my budget. I'm not against restoring a hand plane myself to save a few (or several) dollar. This meant that since this was actually the first time I was using it since I got it, some of that resto needed to be done. I had, upon receiving it, cleaned it up and done some resto on it to get it to a state where it looked decent in pictures, the body was cleaned up to a state of my approval and everything worked. What I had NOT done was fiddle with the iron, the chip breaker or the lever cap. You know, the business end of it.
Sooo......45 minutes with sandpaper on my jointer bed (because smooth, level, dead flat surface) and then some more time running through the "scary sharp" method to get it to a point where (in the words of Doug Marcaida...) "It will cut!"
Now, I know some of you are gonna ask "If you have a jointer, why not just use that?" And...that's a valid question. So here's the thing, I knew this top was just barely wide enough for the body shape I'm shooting for here. I don't have a lot of extra meat to be fiddling with and I know that my jointer will probably take too much. I have it set to just take a tiny bit off, probably like an 1/8" or something like that. But still, that's a lot when you're stressed about it. Plus, this is one of those things where I try to blend power tools and hand tools in my work. There's just some things, such as this, where I want to be removing tiny bits of material and really focusing on "feeling" what I'm doing on a level that the power tools just simply can not offer. When you run a hand plane over that joint and then feel it with your fingers, you understand. The plane takes off this paper thin amount of wood, so you can really dial it in like nothing else. I went until I saw the plane take one continual, non-stop shaving from end to end on both boards and then I knew it was perfect. The power tools simply won't take a paper thin amount off. Thus, I reached for the hand plane and made shavings. Also, there's something satisfying about looking down at a hand plane as you push it forward and seeing quality shavings coming off the iron. It's not something you can describe, you just have to experience it. It's the definition of "wood working". Power tools are fine, and I use them. But there's a feeling in these hand planes that the jointer, screaming bloody murder throwing dust flying all over the place, simply doesn't offer. Also, that joint came together so perfectly.
So we need to glue this bad boy up now! I try to run through a dry clamp of everything just so I know I have "all my crap" in order. Good thing I did, because all my clamps are 12" and this thing....isn't.
Okay, audible. A good woodworker knows that his most important tool is his bench. Now, me and my bench don't get along like I wish we did, but that don't make it all bad! Let's put down some packing tape at the right spot, grab the bench dogs and use the end vice to clamp this top! -
I'll let you judge my squeeze out there as to how well that joint came together. And luckily, it looks like the bench dog clamp method is gonna work! But, for good measure, let's plop this big ol' bowl blank on it just to hold it down so it don't cup! -
I put some packing tape on the bowl blank too.
I'm sure some of you will notice that I have not glued the fretboard on yet. I think I have decided to just wait until last to glue it on. The plan on this one is for the top to run across the neck blank and be flush with the neck at the fretboard (if that makes sense), then the fretboard sit on top of the...top. So I can't glue it on yet because I still need to flush out the top. I'm thinking there will be a router sled in my future to do that, I'll also need to use the same router sled to flush out the back of the neck blank with the body wings too. I'm also debating some weight relief cavities in the wings since we're gonna cap this one with that top, but I haven't decided yet. Lucifer doesn't really weigh that much and this one is made of the same wood as he is and this one is a shorter scale, so I dunno yet. This one does have wenge wings tho, where Lucifer used mostly ash (because I knew it would save some weight). Another bridge I'll cross when I get there.
I also want to go off track a bit and brag about this new saw I picked up too -
I haven't had an opportunity to put it to use yet, but I'm happy adding it to my collection. This is a Sandvik dovetail saw that I snagged for $50 after shipping. The only real issues with it are a couple very small paint spots on the "other" side of the handle and someone put the hole in it to hang it (which seems stupid because the handle has a rather large....hole...in it). I'll most likely just leave the tiny paint spots alone rather than do more damage trying to remove them. I'm okay with a tool having some history.
Now, I'm gonna let that top dry until tomorrow because the rest of my day is booked for one last Christmas gathering. I turned a really cool little resin blank pen for my brother-in-law and am really hoping he likes it! This was a blank that his grandpa purchased probably 30 years ago and had planned on turning a pen for him and just never got to it before he eventually passed away. So I finished grandpa's pen for him and will be giving it to him tonight. That's all I got for today. Merry Christmas everyone!
