Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

They look good to me.

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

I think I'm confused here, still trying to wrap my head around this, but seem to be going crossed eyed.
Anyway, whatever works for you is the correct solution. Nice work.

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

You've been busy figuring out simpler solutions. Very interesting.

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

Matt Cremona did some good videos for a Six sided dovetailed box.

His first video is a demonstration without him talking, it was an announcement for his second child.
Here is the video link

He did a follow-up video describing how he attacked the problem.
Here is a video link for that.

Hope it helps.

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

Thanks, Tim! Yeah, I ended up doing sort of half-blind dovetails. Or something. Only one side of the joint shows the joinery. Which worked for the box I made.

Matt's solution is like what I tried first, but I couldn't get the joint very solid that way at 135 degrees. Maybe it would've worked better at 120 degrees for a hexagon. I'll probably play with it more, but my google-fu was failing me and I couldn't find anyone who had dovetailed not right-angle corners.

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

Pretty cool Dave. Looks like a lot of work. You are a very patient person!!!

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

Took longer to figure out than to actually cut them, Kelly. Thanks!

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

Nice work, I really know what you mean about figuring it out. Then cutting is done in no time. I like how you used mirror to get both views.

 

Cutting 135 degree dovetails

I couldn't find anyone describing how to cut dovetails for non-square corners, so I decided to write this up. This trick will work for any angle dovetails, but you'll have to change up the workholding jigs.

This is a description of how to cut dovetails for a 135 degree corner. This is the angle used on an octagonal box (if all the angles are equal). They're not perfect, and there's probably a better way to do it, but this is the best I found.

My first try cutting 135 degree dovetails used no special workholding. I just threw the pieces in the vise and started cutting. I cut tails first and I cut them pretty much as normal, except with the end of the board at a 45 degree angle, so they were pretty easy.

The pins were fairly straight too. This is feeling easy!

But the fit left something to be desired.

So I sat and thought for a bit and decided that maybe I could use a square piece in the corner, all tails, and put pins on the edge pieces that would go into it, and then cut the 45 degree angle afterwards. It couldn't be any worse than the previous attempt, could it?

Well, that worked okay, and I might end up trying that method again, but I'll have to think harder about the grain direction in that corner piece when I do.

So I tried again. Third time's the charm, right?

I cut the tails square this time, just like you would on a normal dovetail. I even gang-cut them two at a time.

Then I cut the pins on a board with the end angled 45 degrees using a jig I made for the purpose. I made the 45 degree end on the board using a miter jack before cutting.

Those came out pretty good I think. They're a little gappy where I went astray with the coping saw while cutting out the waste, but they glued up solid.

Hopefully someone else will learn from this and find it useful. To get the boards to look good in the corner, just make the corner piece (the walnut in the above photo) 0.7 times as thick as the edge piece (the ash). The example I show has the walnut thicker, and the corner looks kinda goofy to my eye.

Thanks, Jim. Yeah, I use the mirror when cutting them anyhow, so it's right there. I need to remember to use it more when doing project shots, too.

 

Making a herringbone board

I wanted to do something different for a box lid (a sliding lid for a gift box for a bottle of wine, probably), and I recently bought a Bridge City Tools JointMaker Pro (a review will be along one of these days), so I figured I would use it to cut a bunch of (nearly) identical pieces.

I started by crosscutting 3/4" cherry and butternut boards into 5" long pieces. Then I set up the JMP to rip pieces about 1/4" wide off those. The butternut went fine, taking about 15 push-pulls per cut, but the cherry caused me more problems. Took 55-60 strokes per rip cut, and I spent almost two days building new parts for the JMP and repairing things that weren't quite right.

Anyway, once I got past all the new tool issues, I had a bunch of pieces.

I built a gluing jig using some 1/4" MDF and plywood, plus a couple pieces of molding I had.

And I glued up the first test piece, adding some clamps and nailing down the molding to hold it tight.

Then it was time to call it a day. I came back to it today, and my glue-up held, so it was time to trim the sides. I also planed the surfaces flat, and used the belt-sander with 60 grit to get the surfaces nice.

I built another jig, basically a bench-hook, to hold the board while I cut off the sides.

With the sides cut, I cut off one end, glued it to the other end, and called it a day.

Tomorrow, I'll hand-sand at 120, 180, 240 and 320 before oiling and shellacking the board, and I'll have most of the sliding lid for my box done. I'll probably fill the gaps in the middle with glue and sawdust while sanding, but I'm pretty happy with this for a first attempt.

 

Making a herringbone board

I wanted to do something different for a box lid (a sliding lid for a gift box for a bottle of wine, probably), and I recently bought a Bridge City Tools JointMaker Pro (a review will be along one of these days), so I figured I would use it to cut a bunch of (nearly) identical pieces.

I started by crosscutting 3/4" cherry and butternut boards into 5" long pieces. Then I set up the JMP to rip pieces about 1/4" wide off those. The butternut went fine, taking about 15 push-pulls per cut, but the cherry caused me more problems. Took 55-60 strokes per rip cut, and I spent almost two days building new parts for the JMP and repairing things that weren't quite right.

Anyway, once I got past all the new tool issues, I had a bunch of pieces.

I built a gluing jig using some 1/4" MDF and plywood, plus a couple pieces of molding I had.

And I glued up the first test piece, adding some clamps and nailing down the molding to hold it tight.

Then it was time to call it a day. I came back to it today, and my glue-up held, so it was time to trim the sides. I also planed the surfaces flat, and used the belt-sander with 60 grit to get the surfaces nice.

I built another jig, basically a bench-hook, to hold the board while I cut off the sides.

With the sides cut, I cut off one end, glued it to the other end, and called it a day.

Tomorrow, I'll hand-sand at 120, 180, 240 and 320 before oiling and shellacking the board, and I'll have most of the sliding lid for my box done. I'll probably fill the gaps in the middle with glue and sawdust while sanding, but I'm pretty happy with this for a first attempt.

Looks like the makings of a beaut looking fishing box!!

 

Turning with the bedan

A while ago I picked up a bedan to add to my set of turning tools, and it's rapidly become one of my favorites, due to its versatility and ease of sharpening (I touch it up on the same stones I use for my smaller chisels, which aren't as flat as the ones for the big chisels and plane-blades - that's probably another blog at some point).

Anyway, back to the bedan. I've mostly been using it as a heavy scraper, which it does pretty well. But that sharp edge doesn't have to be presented as a scraper. It can also be used in a peeling cut to rough a spindle in a big hurry, or, as I practiced today, to do planing cuts like a skew on steroids. (If you don't know what the various cuts are, go read Simplifying the Skew now. It'll clear things up.

So, I started practicing planing cuts. The huge bevel of a bedan means that riding the bevel is pretty idiot-proof. Even I can see and feel that big bevel rubbing on the piece I'm turning. The only trick is not catching the side and inadvertently using it as a scraper, which will push the bedan into the piece, causing a bigger catch with the edge… bad juju. But the tool is so heavy, it'll just plow through the wood and remove a giant divot. No real worry about breaking a 3/8" square piece of tool steel with mere wood.

I ripped a chunk of SPF (spruce pine fir) construction tubafor into two squarish two-by-twos, and chucked it up. Put a live center in the tailstock to hold it straight. I've found when I'm trying a new technique, using a chuck on the headstock and a live center on the tailstock makes it almost impossible to have a catch that heaves the piece of wood around the room. Not totally impossible, but almost. Safety first, kids!

My first ball went really well. Wow! This was using the same tool I had just used to rough the piece to round, and there was wood everywhere. And then to get a finish like this with the same tool… Wow!

The second one… well… I started having problems.

See that spiral on the left of the frame? That's a catch anyone learning the skew will recognize immediately. But it wasn't that bad or scary. It just bugged me. Wait! What's with my tool-rest? Or, it's full of notches from my six months of learning to turn, and sometimes having… boo boos.

After addressing that with a flat bastard, the rest felt a lot better and my bedan didn't catch in the divots causing problems with my practice.

That second one is a bit of wood planed off near the end of the ball. That's one heavy "curly".

Things weren't all sunshine and puppies, but I feel like I made some progress this morning.

Here's the one-shot explanation if you want to try it yourself. For a planing cut, similar to rolling a bead with a skew, you want the edge of the bedan somewhere around 70 degrees away from parallel to the piece. Keep the top edge of the bevel just clear of the piece, so it doesn't act like a scraper, and rotate the bedan to keep the bevel tracking down into the v-groove you cut before starting the ball.

That's about what I learned this morning. I've got five more chunks of tubafor to practice on over the next five days. I'll try to post again as I figure out more.

Edited to add: my afternoon practice piece went very well. I practiced planing cuts, as well as paring cuts and turned the following piece:

I was proud enough of it that I finished it by sanding it, then applying my homemade friction finish (linseed oil and shellac).

Here's a closeup of where a knot made for some very tricky grain. The bedan cut through it pretty cleanly. Note that this is after less than 3 hours of practicing with the tool.

 

Turning with the bedan

A while ago I picked up a bedan to add to my set of turning tools, and it's rapidly become one of my favorites, due to its versatility and ease of sharpening (I touch it up on the same stones I use for my smaller chisels, which aren't as flat as the ones for the big chisels and plane-blades - that's probably another blog at some point).

Anyway, back to the bedan. I've mostly been using it as a heavy scraper, which it does pretty well. But that sharp edge doesn't have to be presented as a scraper. It can also be used in a peeling cut to rough a spindle in a big hurry, or, as I practiced today, to do planing cuts like a skew on steroids. (If you don't know what the various cuts are, go read Simplifying the Skew now. It'll clear things up.

So, I started practicing planing cuts. The huge bevel of a bedan means that riding the bevel is pretty idiot-proof. Even I can see and feel that big bevel rubbing on the piece I'm turning. The only trick is not catching the side and inadvertently using it as a scraper, which will push the bedan into the piece, causing a bigger catch with the edge… bad juju. But the tool is so heavy, it'll just plow through the wood and remove a giant divot. No real worry about breaking a 3/8" square piece of tool steel with mere wood.

I ripped a chunk of SPF (spruce pine fir) construction tubafor into two squarish two-by-twos, and chucked it up. Put a live center in the tailstock to hold it straight. I've found when I'm trying a new technique, using a chuck on the headstock and a live center on the tailstock makes it almost impossible to have a catch that heaves the piece of wood around the room. Not totally impossible, but almost. Safety first, kids!

My first ball went really well. Wow! This was using the same tool I had just used to rough the piece to round, and there was wood everywhere. And then to get a finish like this with the same tool… Wow!

The second one… well… I started having problems.

See that spiral on the left of the frame? That's a catch anyone learning the skew will recognize immediately. But it wasn't that bad or scary. It just bugged me. Wait! What's with my tool-rest? Or, it's full of notches from my six months of learning to turn, and sometimes having… boo boos.

After addressing that with a flat bastard, the rest felt a lot better and my bedan didn't catch in the divots causing problems with my practice.

That second one is a bit of wood planed off near the end of the ball. That's one heavy "curly".

Things weren't all sunshine and puppies, but I feel like I made some progress this morning.

Here's the one-shot explanation if you want to try it yourself. For a planing cut, similar to rolling a bead with a skew, you want the edge of the bedan somewhere around 70 degrees away from parallel to the piece. Keep the top edge of the bevel just clear of the piece, so it doesn't act like a scraper, and rotate the bedan to keep the bevel tracking down into the v-groove you cut before starting the ball.

That's about what I learned this morning. I've got five more chunks of tubafor to practice on over the next five days. I'll try to post again as I figure out more.

Edited to add: my afternoon practice piece went very well. I practiced planing cuts, as well as paring cuts and turned the following piece:

I was proud enough of it that I finished it by sanding it, then applying my homemade friction finish (linseed oil and shellac).

Here's a closeup of where a knot made for some very tricky grain. The bedan cut through it pretty cleanly. Note that this is after less than 3 hours of practicing with the tool.

I had to google bedan to see what it was - I can't believe I don't have one of them - or 2

 

Turning with the bedan

A while ago I picked up a bedan to add to my set of turning tools, and it's rapidly become one of my favorites, due to its versatility and ease of sharpening (I touch it up on the same stones I use for my smaller chisels, which aren't as flat as the ones for the big chisels and plane-blades - that's probably another blog at some point).

Anyway, back to the bedan. I've mostly been using it as a heavy scraper, which it does pretty well. But that sharp edge doesn't have to be presented as a scraper. It can also be used in a peeling cut to rough a spindle in a big hurry, or, as I practiced today, to do planing cuts like a skew on steroids. (If you don't know what the various cuts are, go read Simplifying the Skew now. It'll clear things up.

So, I started practicing planing cuts. The huge bevel of a bedan means that riding the bevel is pretty idiot-proof. Even I can see and feel that big bevel rubbing on the piece I'm turning. The only trick is not catching the side and inadvertently using it as a scraper, which will push the bedan into the piece, causing a bigger catch with the edge… bad juju. But the tool is so heavy, it'll just plow through the wood and remove a giant divot. No real worry about breaking a 3/8" square piece of tool steel with mere wood.

I ripped a chunk of SPF (spruce pine fir) construction tubafor into two squarish two-by-twos, and chucked it up. Put a live center in the tailstock to hold it straight. I've found when I'm trying a new technique, using a chuck on the headstock and a live center on the tailstock makes it almost impossible to have a catch that heaves the piece of wood around the room. Not totally impossible, but almost. Safety first, kids!

My first ball went really well. Wow! This was using the same tool I had just used to rough the piece to round, and there was wood everywhere. And then to get a finish like this with the same tool… Wow!

The second one… well… I started having problems.

See that spiral on the left of the frame? That's a catch anyone learning the skew will recognize immediately. But it wasn't that bad or scary. It just bugged me. Wait! What's with my tool-rest? Or, it's full of notches from my six months of learning to turn, and sometimes having… boo boos.

After addressing that with a flat bastard, the rest felt a lot better and my bedan didn't catch in the divots causing problems with my practice.

That second one is a bit of wood planed off near the end of the ball. That's one heavy "curly".

Things weren't all sunshine and puppies, but I feel like I made some progress this morning.

Here's the one-shot explanation if you want to try it yourself. For a planing cut, similar to rolling a bead with a skew, you want the edge of the bedan somewhere around 70 degrees away from parallel to the piece. Keep the top edge of the bevel just clear of the piece, so it doesn't act like a scraper, and rotate the bedan to keep the bevel tracking down into the v-groove you cut before starting the ball.

That's about what I learned this morning. I've got five more chunks of tubafor to practice on over the next five days. I'll try to post again as I figure out more.

Edited to add: my afternoon practice piece went very well. I practiced planing cuts, as well as paring cuts and turned the following piece:

I was proud enough of it that I finished it by sanding it, then applying my homemade friction finish (linseed oil and shellac).

Here's a closeup of where a knot made for some very tricky grain. The bedan cut through it pretty cleanly. Note that this is after less than 3 hours of practicing with the tool.

I meant to send this pic and forgot. LOL. Like I said it was one of my favorites for awhile. I even use it on occasion for a rougher.

 

Matching / maintaining hollows and rounds

Over time, wooden planes wear unevenly. Rookies to using them will tend to take a heavy cut at the start and end of a pass, which will tend to leave the bottom of the plane somewhat convex (which means no matter how you adjust it, the plane will be more aggressive than it should be). And just normal use will tend to make a plane slightly concave (which will mean no cut at all until the plane is set very aggressively, or unless you push down hard enough to flatten the plane out a bit).

In either case, the first thing you need to do is get the length of the plane flat. If everything else is right with the planes, you can use the hollow to flatten the round, and vice-versa. It's best to try and get the round close first, as this can be done with a bench plane if need be (you'll get a faceted bottom curve, but that's easily corrected).

If you have a convex plane, mount it in your bench vise, sole up, with the iron set in the plane, but retracted enough that it won't cut. Use the matched plane to take shallow cuts off the middle, planing from toe to heel. If the planes aren't matched, this will begin to match them.

If you have a concave plane, concentrate on the ends of the plane. It shouldn't take more than three or four passes unless your plane is way out of shape.

If you had corrected a round with a bench-plane, use the hollow and roll it slightly side to side to knock off the facets from that process to make a nice smooth curve.

After a few passes, retract the blade for the matched plane, set the wedge again, and wrap the bottom with some sandpaper (120 grit has been a good starting point for me) and sand to get the plane bottom correct.

The important thing is to set the blade in the plane body before adjusting it so the plane won't be warped from its normal use-state. This applies to both the plane you're reshaping as well as the plane you're using to reshape the other.

If the curve of the plane is off (they seldom are by much), simply rotating the other plane while leveling the length of the bottom will get you closer to correct, since the curves are circles.

Once you have one plane (probably the round) good, change them around, and mount the hollow in the vise, and flatten its length similarly, first with the plane, and then with sandpaper.

To check the curve on the plane (once the length is flat), I use an auger bit of the appropriate diameter to compare against the hollow. My good augers will give me a pretty good idea if the curve is wrong on the hollow. If it is, I will mark the high spots with a pencil, then use the matching round to plane off the high spots. Once the hollow is correct (according to the auger bit), I use it to make sure the round has the correct curve. Small adjustments here! It's highly unlikely the curve of the plane sole will be too far out of whack, unless you're changing it (which is more advanced than I'm covering here). More likely is a small ding in the sole that you can usually ignore unless it's too near the mouth.

With the wood correct on both planes, it's time to start sharpening the blades. I have a couple synthetic stones that I got from Razor Edge Systems which don't require lubricant. I keep them flat with a diamond plate, and the coarse stone works well for establishing bevels and making sure the back of a plane blade is flat. For the hollow blades, I use slip stones.

For a hollow or round, you want to do about 60% of the work on the back of the blade. This is pretty easy, since you're just making sure it's flat. Don't do "the ruler trick" or lift the tang of the blade, just make it flat on the stone.

For the bevel, I start with a known-good plane body (see above) and use a marking knife and layout fluid to paint the face of the blade, and then mark the correct curve on it. If the blade is WAY out of shape, I'll take it to the grinder and grind to that curve 90 degrees from the back, and then grind the bevel by hand, but I've only needed to do that on about one blade out of ten.

Other than that, it's just sharpening. Just make sure to establish the correct curve first, then worry about the bevel. And try not to use the same track on the stone every time so you have to flatten your stone more often. About 30 degrees will be fine for the bevel in almost all cases. If you have a hollow-ground bevel (from a grinder), you'll want to lift the tang of the blade just a hair while sharpening the bevel because that's the way the geometry works. Matt Bickford's book (see below) has pictures and an explanation.

Once the blade is sharp, use a strop to keep it touched up. I've got a set of hollows and rounds that I'm slowly getting back in service using these methods, and I haven't had to sharpen the blade on any of them a second time yet. But every time I use one, I'll give its blade a couple passes on the strop just to make sure the edge stays nice and sharp. And it gives me practice adjusting the blades so I get better at that.

And if you're serious about this, buy a copy of Matt Bickford's Mouldings in Practice and read chapter 14 of that book. It's a much better treatise on maintaining hollows and rounds from a guy who has a ton more experience at it.

 

Thanks Dave.