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| I picked this prophetic block out of the box of random bits to clamp down this section of rib for planing. |
A very hard and hot day of work! First activity was to mark out the outline on the end of the blocks which were attached to the mould before my arrival. This is done in the rough with a cleaver and mallet, then by hand with a gouge, only doing the curves on the inside of the C bouts (the ones in the middle). Next was to scrape and plane the three strips of maple for the ribs. Fortunately they were cut fairly thin anyway, around 1.7mm, it took most of the day to get them down to the 1.4mm they need to be. Quite thin really! You've no idea how much effort it takes to remove 0.05mm in thickness from one of these things. And they seem to grow back after you've planed them. Spooky.
First job tomorrow will be to cut the ribs to generous length, and to bend and fix the C bouts. Also in the near future will be to join the pieces of the back and maybe the front.
Phew. A really enjoyable day. My feet are killing me, and I'm really tired. Fortunately it's that lovely, well earned, have a bath and go to bed kind of tired.
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| Rough shaping of the blocks with a cleaver |
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| Shaping the blocks - halfway there. |
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| Getting the ribs down to the right thickness. Use a plane! It takes forever with a scraper! |
