All Replies on Hand Tool Forensics #3 - We Have a Winner!

Cutting tenons by hand with a chisel…or creating a miniature replica stack of firewood for a doll’s house.

-- "You know, I'm such a great driver, it's incomprehensible that they took my license away." --Vince Ricardo

Cutting a hinge mortise.

-- Nathan, TX -- Hire the lazy man. He may not do as much work but that's because he will find a better way.

I had similar waste installing a half mortise lock.

-- I measured once, cut twice, and its still too short...

ALL good guesses but, no!

whittling with a a pocket knife or similar.

The ends were sawn and waste removed with a chisel. The waste gets finer as you get closer to size. There are also crumbs that I would guess come from chopping end grain. Some of the pieces appear triangular. My first thought was dovetails but the angled waste could just be chisel angle.

-- Rick M, http://thewoodknack.blogspot.com/

wood fragments are consistent in width-some type of set width blade either a chisel or scrub plane maybe?

Fragments aren’t curly enough for scrub plane though.

Not sure for my guess

-- It's only a dumb question if you ignore the correct answer

Cutting a dado (or rabbet) cross-grain? Kerfing plane and chisel, if I know you.

-- Dave - Santa Fe

Cleaning up a tennon with a router plane although, those seem very wide to be a router plane.

-- John Darlington Sc

You used a small whisk broom to clean out the bathroom sink after your pet beaver was done flossing his teeth?

-- "You know, I'm such a great driver, it's incomprehensible that they took my license away." --Vince Ricardo

Cutting a dado (or rabbet) cross-grain? Kerfing plane and chisel, if I know you.

- Dave Polaschek

DING, DING, DING … we have a winner! Yes Dave, I was cutting cross-grain dados with a chisel.
 

 
Didn’t use the kerfing plane … I just free handed a backsaw this time!
 

 

I did almost the exact same thing putting the uprights into my file till just last week, so the leftovers looked familiar. And I free-handed a backsaw as well. Cutting all the slots for all the files gave me a lot of practice sticking to my line.

Edit to add: the chunks were too thick for a dado plane, which was my first thought, but I’m pretty sure you don’t use one of those very often.

-- Dave - Santa Fe

Cutting a dado (or rabbet) cross-grain? Kerfing plane and chisel, if I know you.

- Dave Polaschek

-- "You know, I'm such a great driver, it's incomprehensible that they took my license away." --Vince Ricardo

You used a small whisk broom to clean out the bathroom sink after your pet beaver was done flossing his teeth?

- Ripper70

Now that’s  funny but, no!

I did almost the exact same thing putting the uprights into my file till just last week, so the leftovers looked familiar. And I free-handed a backsaw as well. Cutting all the slots for all the files gave me a lot of practice sticking to my line.

Edit to add: the chunks were too thick for a dado plane, which was my first thought, but I’m pretty sure you don’t use one of those very often.

- Dave Polaschek

I had a feeling you would get this one. I find it easier just to chop out the waste with a chisel when cutting dados. I will use a rebate plane on rebates, though.

If I’ve got a dado plane in the right width, I’ll use that, but that’s just ¼”, ⅜” and ¾” for now. For half, I use a chisel, but I’m keeping my eye open for a good half-inch dado plane.

-- Dave - Santa Fe

For a dado in the sides of a drawer…I can take the time to set up the Stanley 45…or..

Set the mitre saw’s depth stops, make a few cuts…

Use a chisel to pop most of the waste out, then clean up with a plane..

sometimes it is quicker….

-- A Planer? I'M the planer, this is what I use

Here’s an easy one for you:

-- Dave - Santa Fe

Here’s an easy one for you:

- Dave Polaschek

May I assume we are on the same subject as dados or perhaps a rebate using a chisel or rebate plane?

using a cambered blade cross grain

-- 👀 --

Scrub plane (with an aggressively cambered blade), cross grain.

-- Dave - Santa Fe