Half the joinery is done, time to switch gears

While I was banging away at my baseline last nite, it became quickly obvious that the chisel I was using was chewing wood more than it was cutting. Mind you I'm working in soft pine, but still.
It's acting more like a beaver than a sharp chisel :-)

So guess which of the 4 projects I'm currently juggling is coming up to the top? That's right, my sharpening board.

But first, time to catch up with Plane till No 2 progress.
To save time, I gang saw my tails on the two end boards, then I separated them to finish cutting to my baseline. If you never done that, give it a go, it is a real time saver...Of course, I could not do that with my saw bench pieces, it was hard enough in one piece, never mind two.

The two side board sandwiches together to gang cut the tails 

That little triangle tells me; Front, top, left and right orientation of my pieces

After the dovetail saw, the next up to bat is my fret saw to waste most of the stuff in between.  Learned a long time ago to mark clearly, my waste areas. If you hand cut dovetails, you know exactly why it is always a good idea :-) 

Finally managed to broke the blade that came with it.

I got a pack of Pergas blades I want to try, but I cannot locate them right now, sigh!

My long boards did not do any stupid tricks, they remain flat, my end boards however 

developed a small bow so I got them clamped, awaiting my chisels to be sharpen.

So I now got my tails boards done, now it is time to sharpen a few chisels with my new side clamping jig and my yet to be built sharpening board, before attempting the pins. Yes, I own numerous chisels, but the size I need the most is lonesome and need a good sharpening.

So I guess it is time to put together this infamous sharpening board I been thinking about.
So that would be next. Lets clear the bench...and try something.

After trying a few things on a suitable plywood board I had, (see yesterday post) I decided that it was time to cover it with a high pressure laminate, left over from a long ago project in a former house. This is to make my board water resistant, water-stones can be very messy.

If you ever struggled to cut laminate or Plexiglas etc, get yourself one one these carbide scraper.

Make cutting very easy and makes nice little curly shavings

Got the contact cement on and waiting to dry

Time to stick them permanently, have my J roller handy.

Rolled on, and clamped upside down on my bench overnite

Tomorrow, I'll trim it to final size, put on a bench hook (an under-mount lip) and put on the final touches. Probably will trim around with some hardwood, just to make it prettier and protect the laminate from edge chipping. I'm still on the fence about putting my setting blocks for the honing guide around the board edges. Wondering if a separate stick a la Chris wouldn't be better?


Bob, switching gears...again. Just thought of something else I want to build... Oh look a squirrel! :-)