Australian Wood Review – June 2017

Well Dressed

• Each of the six surfaces is
  perfectly flat and straight.


• All six surfaces are
  suitably dressed
  standard for further
  work processes.
  
  
  • Any two adjacent
    surfaces are perfectly
    square to each other.
  
  
  • Any two opposite
    surfaces are perfectly
    parallel to each other.
  
  
  • Length, width and
    thickness are correct.
  
  
  
  

70 Australian Wood Review

TECHNIQUE

To dress the opposite edge, set a gauge to your desired

board width and scribe a line on both faces of your board

(photo 1 1 ). In these photos I’ve used a pencil gauge for

visual clarity for this article, but ideally you’d use a cutting

gauge for increased accuracy.

Load your board into the vice and repeat the steps for

dressing your face edge. Be very careful to get this edge

to a fully straight and square status prior to hitting your

gauge line. This way you can now simply take the last

few full length, full width shavings right down to your

gauge line. The end result should be an edge that is

straight and square to the face side, as well as parallel to

the face edge.

To dress the opposite face, begin by taking a cutting gauge

and, referencing from your face side, scribe a gauge line to

your desired final board thickness (photo 1 2 ). Load your

board onto the bench between the dogs as before, although

this time you won’t need any wedges as you’re referencing

your flat face side onto your flat bench!

Inspect the face to be worked. There is every chance that

you now have a surface that is convex across the width. In

this case, I’ve found it best to firstly take a plane set for a

heavy cut and take a series of coarse passes along the middle

length of the board to create a concavity (photo 1 3 ).

Now you can repeat the steps outlined for dressing a face.

Aim to have this face flat and parallel to the reference face

just prior to reaching your gauge line. Ultimately, you’d

like to take a final few series of overlapping, full length, full

width shavings with your smoothing plane to reach your

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10. Check for square all along the
    length of the edge.


11. Referencing from the face
    edge, scribe to width.


12. Scribing your desired board
    thickness.


13. Take long passes to hollow
    out the central area of
    convex faces.


14. This little wiry shaving means
    you’ve reached your target.


15. Shooting the ends of a board
    with a No.9 shooting plane.

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