Finishing Experiments

Last evening, I applied tape to the face of my sample and put a coat of polyurethane on the edge.

Tonight I was then able to experiment with sealling and staining the face. As far as I can tell, this process is going to work quite well. The final test will be after I apply a coat of polyurethane on the face of the sample tomorrow evening.

Truing Frames

I also spent time truing where stiles and rails meet on my doors. There were very small differences in the thickness of the stiles and rails. A bit of time with a well-sharpened bevel-up plane got them to where a final sanding will have them meeting precisely. That will come after the doors are glued up. I made it through two of the nine frames and then decided to work on my backlog of things that need sharpening.

Tuning up a Stanley 720

I decided it was time to sharpen up a Stanley 720 1/2" chisel I’ve had for a long time. I’ve already got a 1/2" Stanely 720 - this one came with two others that included a 5/8" which I really wanted. Since I already have a sharpened chisel in this size, this one has been knocking about for years now.

It turned out to be rather more work than I’d hoped. The back was rather out of flat.

I ground a new bevel on face using my grinder, which took only a few minutes. But I then spent considerable time getting the back of it flat. After that, it was a matter of working up through my waterstones through 8000 grit, and then a bit of honing with honing compound on my leather strap mounted to a board.

As long as I don’t let it get too dull, or use it unwisely, it should only require quick sharpening on my 8000 grit stone with the occsional regrinding of the top bevel.