After rather a lot of agonising over details, I've been hiding from the heat and making a little more progress on sanding and chamfering the slats.
Having rejected Mr Nurse's plane as not working on tiny chamfers, I dug out my other old one. It's not quite what the old book lists as the Melhuish pattern - whoever made this one favoured movable fences on both sides. But they close up tight enough, and I want the consistency that a fenced plane will give me.
- the better plane
- (243.74 KiB)
- boxwood fences
- (235.96 KiB)
First, I sanded the slats, like I did in my experiment, using 120 grit Abranet and the vacuum cleaner. I realised that, with hand sanding, I'd normally judge my progress by the amount of dust I had made. But with this method, there's no dust at all. That makes it a bit odd - it feels as if you're not removing anything - but you are of course. I soon found myself developing a rhythm of doing the same number of strokes on each surface, in the same order. This helps a lot with a repetitive job and makes sure of not missing anything out. I was careful to keep all the bits stacked up by number.
For the chamfering, it was the same sort of routine. I was holding the slats against a couple of pegs in the bench, positioning the plane the same way, and taking just two shavings from each arris.
- simple workholding
- (300.84 KiB)
- a tidy pile
- (297.47 KiB)
I've now done both sets of slats, for the head and foot of the bed. I didn't use a washing line, just some bits of scrap to let them rest on their tenons.
- watching varnish dry
- (332.13 KiB)
I'm really happy with this varnish. It goes on very easily, dries smooth and looks good. I've been using a Polvine brush which is quite thin but holds just enough and has the right strength of bristles to brush it out efficiently.
Buoyed up by success with the slats, I also started on the end rails. These just needed a bit of a clean up to remove any markings or rough spots.
On the straight one I just planed:
- smoothing
- (277.57 KiB)
On the curve, I used a cabinet scraper:
- scraping
- (198.1 KiB)
Before removing the pencil marks I made sure I could still see which slat went where
- easy as 1 2 3
- (274.27 KiB)
To chamfer the long curve, I needed something freehand but with a bit of delicacy about it. Time for a beautiful little boxwood spokeshave, only 7½" long. This one is also marked "Warlow" - the same Bristol ironmonger that sold the saw I have been using on this project.
- a close shave
- (274.61 KiB)
- Warlow
- (180.9 KiB)
(Incidentally, this size would have been listed in the catalogues as 1½", as that's the length of the iron. According to the excellent booklet on the subject by the late Ken Hawley, spokeshave irons went from 1" up to 6" long.)
Sadly, Warlows are no longer in business, though one of their old shops still bears the name:
- No longer the shop it was, but still useful...
- (202.88 KiB)
but happily, Bristol design is just across the road, for anyone needing to stock up.
That's all the progress for now; I'll leave you with an artfully posed shot of the sort of detail that will always be covered up by bedding or pillows when this thing is finished
- what the tools are for!
- (134.94 KiB)
