Making some eight sided tapering pencil posts and sharpening.

I am currently working on two queen size pencil post beds so I am making all of the posts at the same time. Once the post is made square, it is then tapered on the table saw to a four sided tapering post.   In order to make the remaining 4 facets (to make eight in all) first the post is scribed to mark out where the extra facets will lie then the lambs tongue is rough chiseled, then most of stock is removed staying a bit above the scribe lines.  I use a power planer for this to same my arms.  Then finally a hand plane is used to finish off the final facets until the scribe lines are all gone.

roughing the lambs tongue

taking fine shavings with a cabinet scraper

lambs tongue after finishing
with chisel and scraper

I made this little hand plane about
15 years ago. It is a great plane for this work.

lambs tongue before finishing

the new tool rest for my grinder. not pretty but
it works very nicely.

For all of this hand work, sharp tools are a must.  My grinding wheel has not been working well lately and I have been having a really hard time getting blades to be true before honing in the water stone.  I finally took the time to re-make my tool support for the grinder.  I used a wooden hinge that I had made as a test when I made a gate leg table last year.  This is a very rigid hinge. The difference was instantly amazing.  I was able to get a straight even grind that was quickly honed to a perfect edge.  When all is working properly, a new grind/sharpen takes about 5 minutes.  Before I fixed my jig, I was easily taking 30 minutes or more of very frustrating time to do the job and not ending up with good results.  Now that I can create a fine even sharpened edge, I should be able to just hone for the next two sharpenings and skip the grinding part.  More time saved.

the two white lines are actually the mirror
smooth surface of  the front and back edge of
the hollow ground bevel.

Stay sharp,
Tim