STL 155: Swelling dovetails and fishtail chisels
Plus, ways to live without a jointer, bullnose bits, evening out color in sapele, favorite tools, and smooth movesEnter for your chance to win the Fine Woodworking and Grizzly Full Workshop Giveaway.
00:30 – Question 1:
I have a benchtop planer, but I don’t think I’ll be able to buy a decent jointer due to space. What is the best way to live without a jointer? Should I get a #7 jointer plane or some kind of jig for my planer? I’m mostly interested in building furniture for around the house and/or small gifts for family and friends. Plus, I have recently found the joy of hand tools for woodworking. -Stephen
05:18 – Question 2:
I have a fishtail chisel that serves me pretty well for the all-important task of cleaning-out the tight corners on my half-blind dovetails. Would a set of skew chisels offer an advantage over the fishtail style I current use? If so, I would likely buy a couple of 1/4″ bench chisels and grind in the skews. -Damien
11:15 – All Time Favorite Tool of All Time… for this week
- Matt – Fishtail chisel
- Mike – Sketchbook and an 05 Pigma Micron pen
- Tom – Space heater
19:09 – Question 3:
I am currently making bar stools that will have a curved inside edge on the legs and want to create a FULL bullnose on that edge. The material is 3/4” thick and want to use my 3/8-in. bearing-guided router bit. Clearly the first pass is no problem, however, the second has no edge to run on. -Anthony
24:50 – Question 4:
I’m building a chest lid from quarter-sawn sapele. The outer 9″ of the lid are a darker shade than the rest of the lid. Are there any methods I might use to even out the color of the panel? I saw the difference when gluing it up, but I thought that after planing and sanding, they would even out. -Jim
30:30 – Smooth Move
- Mike – Not documenting his work quickly with his cell phone
- Matt – Making a drawer pocket too wide and the pieces cupping. Also, cutting the groove on the wrong edge of the board
- Tom – Dropping a blade right after sharpening
41:30 – Question 5:
Recently, I had my dovetails swell after planing them flush and applying shellac. Have you ever had this happen before, and if so, what did you do about it?
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Comments
Thank you for this helpful blog , I've been train this type of job since I was a kid when me and my would take all the woodworking tools outside the graden and create alot of interesting things like a wooden cart etc . After all those years my dad was old I didn't got any friends to help me with this as I'm not very expert at this so one day I surf the internet all I found was wood carved in Industries and I didn' t find helpful articles but there was one website offering me 16k woodworking plans which I found it very helpful till now it actually teaches me alot of wood working skills and that website is https://tinyurl.com/ycmb7k6p it is the most authentic woodworking plan.
https://tinyurl.com/ycmb7k6p
Awww, c'mon, fellas! No other fishtail chisels available? Ain't nobody at FWW into wood carving? There are lots of companies making a whole host of fishtail carving chisels and gouges in a wide range of sizes.
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