Rebates, Bagel Slicer and Why Wood again.

Why wood?

 In April 2011 I made a door mat from oak and put it outside our front door.

  This door mat has sat outside the door through rain, shine, summer and winter. Last evening I brought the mat in and gave it a serious coat of tung oil and the mat looks like this:

  This oak mat shows almost no wear and tear, that's why I like wood.

  Cutting rebates by hand is an interesting video made by "The English Woodworker".

hand cut rebates 

  I watched the video this morning and this afternoon I actually set about doing exactly as shown by the video. 

  I cut the rebate on the bottom of my version the bagel slicer 

  I cut the rebate with a knife, chisel and shoulder plane. In the video "The English Woodworker" he is using pine for his box, I used maple. It worked was well with hardwood as with softwood. Cutting rebates by hand is effective but definitely slower, making one rebate by hand is probably quicker than setting up dado blades or a rabbet bit in your router table. With hand work you trade speed away to get a quieter work environment, sometimes quiet is nice. Sometimes fast is nicer. 

 My bagel slicer is made from a scrap of maple with a big ugly knot and a twisted grain that was a reject from a cabinet shop. I think it will look pretty good when the glue dries and I sand it to a fine finish. Interesting grain and knots does not suit everyone's taste but I like my wood to be interesting.

 cheers, Ian W.