13 Comments

  1. I’m going to enjoy this project very much. I’m considering making this a hanging chess board and will require some different dimentions. The thing I have to work out is how I will design and attach the shelves for the chess peices. I’ll put something in the forum to get some ideas from the group. Thanks again for the very thourough instructions.

  2. This project is the first one that I am following where I am building one too. Once I get finished that lesson, I can hardly wait for Wednesday to come so I can find out how Paul does the next step. I have learned so much on handwork just from this project so far. The only thing I don’t have now to progress is a scraper plane. I have ordered one because it seems to be an invaluable tool. With care it will last many generations.

  3. HI,
    Thanks for making the login procedure work without waiting for all the images to download.
    With regards to the chessboard, the download link for episode 2 goes to the video player, not the download file.
    Thanks

  4. Man, it can be tough to get the end-grain edges to line up perfectly. I spent several hours with my plane set super light trying to even out the edges but I know my final board is still going to have some gaps in it and won’t be perfectly square.

    I think it would be helpful if Paul did a video on some basic plane techniques. I often find that the edges of my work tend to be a bit lower than the middle (i.e. a bit of bellying) but for whatever reason I really struggle to get it all perfectly straight/square. In the past I have seen Paul start in the middle of a piece and work longer strokes to get it flat and that makes sense. I also noticed in this video that I think he was using more pressure on the back end of the plane vs. the front which gave him an indication that he had things level (I’m guessing I probably have a tendency to put too much pressure on the front of my plane causing it to nose-dive a bit).

    In any event, this is a fun project and while my final product won’t be perfect, I do think it will be beautiful. I didn’t have curly maple on hand but used some hard maple instead. The contrast with the mahogany is nice even though I don’t have those cool shiny ripples).

    1. I’m not sure if this applies to your plane, but I bought a really cheap one, and it was doing the same thing; leaving a belly in the middle. I tried many different techniques before it occured to me to check the sole of the plane… well, there was the problem! Hollow sole.. sanded it down true, and now it works like a dream! Dead flat every time!

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