Handles and Box

  The story of the handles should be a mere bagatelle, but as with so many things in a home shop, there was a twist.

 

  It broke. Luckily the handles were going to stand too far off the door so the cut down version wasn't affected by the break.

  The finished handles were stained with  Danish Oil first and then shellac, and I'll finish with spar varnish.

  The panels are being glued one at a time into a box.  The wood panels are only approximately the same size, there will be some adjustment needed to the final piece.  Also the panels are not really flat so there has been a bit of planing and fitting to get the pieces together.

  You can see the long clamp from KREG and the gravity clamp at work holding the side on as the glue dries. 

   Once I get the four sides glued together I will fit a base inside the box and use pocket holes to attach the sides to the base board.

Three Planes

   You can see the three planes that I used to flatten the edge of the panels before glue up.  I first scored a line along the panel to give a natural line for the shoulder plane to follow.  The half inch blade in the shoulder plane cut across the grain easily giving a straight edge and good depth control.  Next I used the small plane to hog out the balance of the wood with the block plane as a smoother.

  I have begun to use my smallest planes more often recently.  Over the last couple of years I have got better at sharpening and the small planes have become much more useful.  I've found the smaller the plane the sharper the blades must be. To  take off whisker like shavings effortlessly and not tear the wood the blade must be razor sharp. All of my small planes have a single adjustment for depth of cut and alignment, set up is a bit fussy, but worth it.

  I have an old bull nose plane sitting on a shelf, it is time to give it the treatment too I think.  I'm sure it was a good tool, and with a proper blade it will be again.

cheers ianw