More wood butchering from Ross, Scarf Joint

[RossJarvis]

  I do the same on the motorbike, grip too hard.  Mind you, I'm normally terrified when riding!

Me too. Mind you, I think terrified is what keeps us alive. That, and a conviction that everybody else is actively trying to kill me and I musn't let them.

Jim

They are aren't they, particularly Volvo drivers!

[chipenter]

I love my Volvo all 200 horses and dry .

[RossJarvis]

I love my Volvo all 200 horses and dry .

But don't you get fed up of all the motorcycle shaped dents on the outside?

[tom osselton]

Mine was in 08 a truck pulling a dual wheel trailer turning left, we don't see many volvo's here   luckly only took out my right side. So long term disabilities till I retire in 2019.

[RossJarvis]

Well, one half of the joint’s done, not overly impressed with my skills but hey-ho.  Not much work done today either.  First off, I used the block plane to get the “lower slope” flat and even, then pared with the chisel the “upper” slope as there was no way to get in there, unless I used the shoulder plane and therefore couldn’t be a***d.  Then I managed to b****r up the rebate at the top by being too enthusiastic with hitting stick and chisel.  Additionally, this rebate was narrow and the only chisel I had to match was now ground skew!!;



Then I chipped away at the tenony thing on the end, this time using a gentler touch and going a bit slower;



Boy, I’ve been taught chiselling by about 5 different people and appear to have forgotten everything they must have told me.  This bit came out relatively satisfactory though.  So here we are, one half of a scarf;



I’ve marked the other half, from this and if the weather improves we’ll see if I can do this in one day.

TTFN

[RossJarvis]

Mine was in 08 a truck pulling a dual wheel trailer turning left, we don't see many volvo's here   luckly only took out my right side. So long term disabilities till I retire in 2019.

Oouch, I feel for you, hope you've been able to adjust successfully.

[RossJarvis]

Rain again till the afternoon, I have now read all of the internet, apart from some of the Mongolian pages and those CIA ones which are hard to find.  However, after going for a walk with the apprentice, well a bit more like going to stand under various trees, I applied sharpness to wood.  (Sharpness in terms of tools that is, not in terms of me!).  Following a demonstration and some advice about getting good straight square cuts with a pull-saw (cheers VTSteam ), I pre-cut along the lines to guide the saw;



….started cutting and;



******, *******s, *******ing, **** . 

It was worserer on the other side;



****ing ******les!;



….more compound curves than on a compound-curvey thing.  At this point I was going to give up.  However, inside the old noggin a battle ensued and I decided to carry on despite it, chisel bash chisel;



….plus it came to transpire (or is that what trees do instead of sweat?), that I had subconsciously managed to mark things out, taking the cock-up into consideration and things weren’t quite as bad as I thought, so before long, Ta Dah;



…two funny shaped bits of wood.  The light was going by now, so I tidied everything away and came in to see what was for tea.  “Whatever you're b****y cooking” is the answer.

Getting a bit fed up with this sawing malarkey.  I need to get some scrap wood and do a lot of practice just on that, me-thinks.  At the moment, I’m not sure whether to blame it on the saw, the wood, the workbench or the apprentice, maybe all four!

[AussieJimG]

You can't stop now, you are just starting to get the hang of it!

Jim

[RossJarvis]

Thanks for the encouragement Jim

Finito Benito, or some such.  Yesterday I found that the “step” in the middle had to be re-cut a bit, at an angle for the wedge.  I couldn’t actually put the two halves together initially as it got in the way.  I’m not sure whether this is something I missed from the book or just messed up when marking out.  After last night’s deluge of Diluvian proportions, plus thunder and lightning (very, very frightening, ooh Galileo…….), which had left an inch of water in the tea mug, I was surprised to find a dry and sunny morning.  So out pops I, pare, pare, pare, scrape, scrape, scrape and;



….two joint parts which almost fit together and a hand planed wedge, which also fits, almost!  Starting to put them together;



Put together and wedged loosely….;





…..and here’s four bits of oak pretending to be two, along with my outdoors plane collection;



I’m sure I’ve learnt a lot more than I think, including not giving up when things all go ***s up.  One thing I have learnt is why the Japanese build their houses out of softwood and not seasoned oak!  I need more practice on the pull-saw, chisels and not rushing, but overall I’d have to say there are a number of things about it, which are positive.  One was that both parts of the joint were straight and flush to each other…….hmmm, not sure what the others are, but I’ll come back if I remember.

[awemawson]

Very neat Ross - 'proper job' as they say in the west country. It must be very satisfying to had got there in the end. Those are worthy of any mantlepiece 

[vtsteam]

Looks great Ross! 

[AussieJimG]

There you go, what did I tell you!

Jim

[RossJarvis]

Thanks for your support and advice Awemorson, VTSteam and AussieJim

Not sure what the next project will be, but hope to come up with something soon.   By the way I am humbled and impressed by your own activities and encouraged that it's not just me who gets up to these stupid things out of curiosity. 

Ross

[PekkaNF]

I’m sure I’ve learnt a lot more than I think, including not giving up when things all go ***s up.  One thing I have learnt is why the Japanese build their houses out of softwood and not seasoned oak!

You might need help identifying wood?
http://weknowmemes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/identifying-wood.jpg

I'm very impressed how you keep focused and just press on even when there is some wind against you. Your experiments are very inspirational.

Pekka

[Joules]

Hey Ross,
       thats nice work, your bonfire is going to be much smaller than mine this year, though most of MY woodwork has been sawing logs.

[RossJarvis]

Thanks Pekka, Joules

Pekka, I can now tell the difference between; oak, pine, plywood and mdf.  I am currently trying to remember the characteristics of OSB to broaden my knowledge .

Joules you have just reminded me, it's getting cold and we have about a 3 day supply of wood stacked, eek!

[R.G.Y.]

At last here is the sweat shop method for cutting dovetails (Victorian), my grandfather taught me. Being the 7th generation of carpenter and last I have 2 daughters. If they were starting work today one would be a good carpenter.  Having done her own loft conversion, with a little help from me. I don't post very often as at my age it's nice to be a junior.
    I did a drawing but this site would not take the format, so I have done a demo instead.
 In to the fire wood box for some scrap. First place the pieces together & draw the line     (photo 1). Repeat on all the ends. If making a box 8 lines on 4 pieces of wood, clamp the wood in the vice. (photo 2, only making 1 joint so not placing the 2 back pieces). Run a thin bladed saw across the top (No 3), then dip down to just mark the lower piece or (pieces) (No 4) Next cut the the tails until just marking the lower piece. (No 5) Remove from vice using the marks on the end cut down to the line, remove the unwanted materiel with a copping saw. (No 6) Job done in 3 minuets flat.

[RossJarvis]

Thanks RGY, that's a very neat job for 3 minutes work   I think I've got that.

Just to clarify on picture 5, the wider part of the pin is marked earlier with the saw, down from the higher board, in line with the wider part of the dovetail.  Then when the dovetail is cut, the saw lightly scores the top of the "pin board" at the narrower end of the dovetail, and you join the two marks for the pin, or more precisely just lay the saw across-wise from mark to mark and cut down to the line.

That's really good, no faffing about with dovetail squares etc  You just need to be good at holding the saw vertical for the pins.

[R.G.Y.]

Yes that's spot on. When I started my apprenticeship the first thing i had to learn was always cut square. Sorry second the first was sweep up & make the tea.

[vtsteam]

Cool, RGY!