Kerfing Plane – Fixed Fence – 2018

Something about the serenity of Tom Fidgen’s youtube channel makes one want to try all sorts of things.  If he can fit all these tools in to his tiny shop – so can I.  And with that I set off to make my own kerfing plane.  This plane is basically a saw with a fence – allowing one to consistently cut 5/16ths wide boards.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here it is at work – basically the idea is that by cutting a kerf around the board – your panel saw will follow the groove ensuring better results when resawing the whole piece.  All of this assumes that your reference face is square – and that you have only had so many double ipas.  Presumably with a kerfing saw and frame saw even David will be able to cut straight.  Ironically the most time consuming part of this project was resawing the quarter-sawn beech which I used as a blank.

 

Turns out that a piece of spare brass and this scrap for kumiko are exactly 5/16s – so I used that as a guide for cutting the kerf.  Oh yes – one of the many chicken/egg problems in woodworking – you need a kerf to make a kerfing saw.  Also, I figured out how to put a timer on my iPad – so Revati no longer has to bare witness to the mess in my shop in order to snap photographs – Although I end up looking more awkward this way.  I think she must have an eye for the flattering angle.  5/16th seems like a convenient size – no longer am I going to get away with using a 3/4 inch piece for a delicate part because I am too lazy to plane it down.  Also, magically 5/16ths is also 7/16ths if you are using a 3/4 inch board.

  

A lot of this was shaping.  Between sawing and drilling I got the rough shape and then it took the entirety of a really bad Calgary Flames game to do the rest of the shaping. Fortunately I had a lot of tools lying around to use as a guide such as this  saw and this plane.  When you look at your old work and say – “damn how did I do that” – there are competing emotions – pride in your craftsmanship and horror in how you  have forgotten the way.  Mostly I used a rasp until I could fit my bear claw around the thing.  Now I finally need to finish the frame saw.