Popular Woodworking 2009-08 № 177, страница 14

really have to do is plane some portion of the seat rail to match the rear leg. But how much should I plane?

1 dry-fit the rails and marked the portion to be pianedaway. To fair ineven a small step, you have to plane the entire length of the rail Starting with a jack plane, I removedexcess wood quickly. The hard linethatresultedwas softened with the smooth plane. You don't need to fair this too much. You just want to remove the sharp corner to prevent one facet from catchingand reflecting light.

Cutting Rabbets

Next, I cut the rabbet. The rabbet, cut into I he front and side rails, supports a drop in slip seat. The slip seat is a wooden frame comprised of four sticks mortised and ten

oned together, then upholstered. But the rabbet that holds it is a little bit tricky. It must be marked from the outer surface of the rails to ensure the moulding that will decorate the upper edge ofthe rails will be a uniform size

When I can, when it matters, 1 prefer to use my moving fillister to cut rabbets. A moving fillister plane is like a bigskew rabbet plane, but it has anadjustable fence and depth stop. But in this instance, the inner face is no longer parallel to the outer. So I choselo work to my gauge lines with a firming chisel, hogging away material as if I was digginga hole. The resultingroughsurface was quickly and easily brought to the lines with a simple skew rabbet.

I did use my fillister plane to create lhe

Fair the rail. The plumb side seat rail must be faired into the angled rear leg. I marked the intersection with my striking knife. in piepara-tion for planing the excess material away.

Bad bevels f planed away the excess material using my trusty jack plane. Theresultisa beveled seat rail, tf I left it like this, the different facets would catch and reflect light differently, drawing attention where I would not like it.

Smooth finish. I finished the outer face of the side rail with my smooth plane. I softened the tine between fhe facets, and finished smoothing and fairing the rail to its adjacent legs.

Chiseled rabbets. I cut the rabbets for the seat using my trusty ''.i firming chisel. Because the outside face of the rail is the reference face, no fenced plane will be helpful. No matter what tool I use, I'll have to do some amount of cleanup. So I chose the fastest tool I could.

Skewed finish. A simple skew rabbet plane (a rabbet plane with an angled or "skewed" blade) quickly cleaned up the irregular surfaces from my chisel work.

popul a rwoodwork ing.com ■ 19