In late 2017, I bought a miter jack, thinking that I would need to be making some 45 degree miters for the box swap in early 2018. Since then, I've changed my plans for what I'm going to build (I got better at dovetails, mostly) and might not be doing miters, but figured that I would play with my miter jack a little before I get started on the box construction for the swap. After all, who doesn't enjoy a little procrastination?

For those who aren't familiar, a miter jack is basically a vise with angled jaws. I've read of ones that have both 45 and 60 degree angles, but the one I found on eBay just had 45 and 90. That's probably just as well. I don't plan on making hexagonal boxes. And the 90 will mean I don't have to dig out my shooting board as often.

While waiting for oil to dry on another project in February 2018, I set it up and took it for a spin. I clamped a piece of ½”x6” poplar in the jaws, got out my jack plane (pretty sure the jacks aren't related) and started removing wood.

It works pretty well. One thing I need to watch out for is some spelching if I don't chamfer the far end, but that mostly gets trimmed away when I get down to level with the jaws. The other is that if I'm not paying attention, I can end up planing off a bit of the miter jack, which might change the angle from a perfect 45°︎ over time. Shouldn't be too tough to avoid though, and I can see where previous owners have dinged up the jaws a little.

But if I do my part, it looks like creating near-perfect miters is pretty easy. Here are my two test pieces of poplar, just standing up next to each other on the bench. That's a good enough miter that I should be able to make a nice box corner with almost no extra tuning. And while it's basically just another configuration of shooting board, having it be a vise means that I don't need a bunch of extra hands to hold the piece I'm working on.

Finally, my square says that's 90 degrees. It's just the photograph that looks a little off because of the extreme close-up.

Bob Summerfield wrote a good post on sharpening a saw for use with a miter jack.

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Once the saw was “done” I still wasn't quite happy with it. I decided it needed decoration. With the light yellow of the citrus wood, the dark brown of coffee grounds made a very pretty contrast. Kolrosing (or kohlrosing) it is!

I decided to do a more linear pattern on one side, and a more curvy, or floral pattern on the other, mostly to get more experience and figure out what I like better. I started with the lines.

That was yesterday morning. This morning, I made curves.

In both cases, after carving the lines, I rubbed finely ground coffee grounds into the lines, then lightly sanded the surface to remove my pencil marks and coffee that wasn't in the lines, then coated the wood with tung oil, which should lock everything into place.

So there it is. Fin.

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So at the urging of a few people who wanted to know how the saw would cut, I put it together this morning and cut a curve in some ¾ pine. Nothing tricky, but the kind of thing I end up doing a lot.

I put in a new Pegas Coping Skip 6.5” 18tpi blade, and tightened it up. I took it to about an A#, just above A440Hz. That's an octave below the tension I normally have in the metal-framed coping saw, but it feels more solid. I'll tighten it up further after I re-tie the string a little tighter. Currently it took over a dozen turns to get to this tension because the string is fairly loose when straight.

The saw cuts reasonably well, and while I didn't hit any places where I was turning so sharply it would bind, the tension in the blade would've kept that from happening.

The two things I noticed were that it has a shallower throat (not surprising, that's how I built it) so I had to approach the cut differently, and the wood flexes less, which makes it feel more solid in use.

I'll keep the metal framed coping saw around, probably with a coarse blade for wasting away wood in a hurry, but I suspect this one will get a lot of use in the future.

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I decided I didn't like the little spots of tear-out and places where the grain left me with a rippled surface, so I spent an hour today going after the pieces of the saw with a card scraper.

I also cleaned up the shoulder on one of the tenons on the cross-piece. That makes the arms of the saw sit more in-line with each other so the saw blade won't be stressed more than it needs to be.

The citrus looks a nice yellow with the tung oil on it, but I've decided the frame of this saw is going to get decorated because it really looks nice with the coffee colored lines on the yellow, so I started sketching ideas. Have a few, but nothing I'm willing to commit to the surface of the wood yet. Built a couple bookcases, and I'm out of pine 1×6s now, so I phoned the lumber yard to get more, which I'll pick up in the morning, then unload, and then I'll start finishing the three built cases that are sitting in my shop. Probably be Wednesday before I even get back to sketching design ideas for this.

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I got the bow saw completed today. I still want to decorate it, but it's together and functional now.

First on today's menu was getting the arms shaped. They don't really need to be thinner, but making them a little thinner will make the saw more comfortable to use. I used a drawknife to get the other dimension thinned down and smoothed.

With that done, I mixed up some epoxy and glued the pins into the handles.

Then some quick chamfering on the corners of the arms, mostly for comfort, but also to clean up a couple spots of tear-out where the grain wasn't cooperating with me.

Then a coat of tung oil on the parts I had done.

And I disassembled a paracord boot-lace to get one of the strands of nylon string out of it. That'll be the cord that tensions my bow-saw. And yes, I'll need to tie a knot better than a square knot.

Then I cut a toggle out of one of the citrus offcuts left over from turning the handles, and put a groove in it so the string wouldn't slip off it.

And I tried a little kolrosing on the side of the toggle. It looked pretty good, but my carving skills still need work.

And that sorta finishes the saw. Everything needs to cure, and I want to decorate the arms and cross-piece, but that'll be another day.

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My next shop session was spent shaping the cross-piece and the arms. First up, taking a spokeshave to the cross piece to thin it slightly in the middle, and make the ends match the arms nicely. It's not going to be a huge taper, but just a little bit looks a lot better than none. Plus I get to smooth out the surface now. I don't think I'll be doing any sanding on this saw, so I want to fix any little spots of tear-out from cutting and planing the pieces.

Then I used the spokeshave and a knife to chamfer the corners, giving the piece a slight octagonal shape. Again, lots of grain-reading, as there are some funky reversals in this wood.

Next up were the arms. It's time to round over the ends where the pins for the saw will go. I basically mark an equal amount on the top and side, then use a rasp to round over, removing my pencil marks. If it doesn't look right, I'll add more marks and remove a little more.

Then I took a knife and chamfered the corners on the part of the arms which will hold the string. I didn't want to do too much, as I also need to shape the lower parts of the arms, but that's a job for tomorrow.

And that's it for today. I've got a day and a half in, and other than sharp corners on the lower parts of the arms, the saw is usable and not looking half-bad,

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I decided I don't like the metal-frame coping saws. I find that the far end of the saw will often twist when I don't want it to, and I'll end up cutting a curve when I don't want to, or cutting a straight line when I want a curve. So I decided I'd make a bow saw that uses the standard coping saw blades to complement my bigger turning saws ( 1 and 2).

First I cut the arms out of a piece of citrus I got from AZWoody a couple years back. Then I drilled holes in the arms for the pins (from Gramercy Tools) and inserted the pins with one of the coping saw blades I want to be able to use in this saw. This let me figure out the length of the cross-piece. The important thing is to remember to leave material for the tenons that will stick into the mortises in the arms (DAMHIKT).

With that done, it's time to chop the mortises in the arms.

Just chisel work with a ¼” chisel. Aim for about ⅜” deep, because I'm working with ¾” stock.

Then it was time for a little break, so I fired up the lathe to make the handles. The citrus turns pretty well, I think.

Time for some tenons. Cut them to match the mortise, then pare with a chisel to make them fit. They can be a little loose – the shoulders carry all the load.

Do a test fit and mark the pieces for orientation.

Then it's time to start shaping the arms. I do one dimension at a time, roughing with a coping saw, then a spokeshave, then a knife, and eventually maybe a rasp (if I can't get a nice finish with the knife).

Then it was time to take a break and get some food. Next up will be shaping the other arm (they don't have to match exactly, but they need to look good together) and the cross piece, then doing the same in the other dimension for all the pieces. Also need to epoxy the pins into the handles, find some string, and carve a toggle to tension the string.

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This is a project I built in December of 2020. It's one of my most-used saws in the shop.

• First Day's Construction
• More Shaping
• Wrapping It Up
• Cleaning Up The Surfaces
• Test Run
• Kolrosing

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This is a smoothing plane I made for the 2019 Spring Surprise Swap. My recipient was Jerry, aka Turns4Wood The plane body is a sandwich of birch, African mahogany, and elm with an ipe sole. The elm was spalted and has been stabilized. The wedge is pear. The blade is at 45°︎ so it's fairly general purpose.

The looks of the plane are roughly based on a 1935 Auburn Speedster. I think that's a pretty good looking car, and kept it in mind while I was shaping the plane body. I think I did ok, and definitely a lot better than my first try, which looks more like a VW Beetle.

The plane uses the Veritas small plane kit with an O-1 blade.

Rough shaping was done with a bandsaw, then a belt-sander, and finally hand-sanding using the sanding blocks I got in one of my first swaps. Thanks again for those, Pooh!

The wedge is a piece of stabilized pear. I got the pear from HokieKen, and it was pretty soggy, so I wasn't sure if it would stabilize well, but I dried it in the oven without it cracking, and after it was stabilized, I carved in my mark. Until now I had burned the mark using a small laser engraver, but that died so I carved it by hand, and then filled the carved lines with black wood filler. I need some more practice carving.

I sanded up to 240 grit. Finish is two coats of linseed oil, followed by three coats of blonde shellac.

I sent the plane to Jerry in a hand-made wooden box. The box is butternut sides, a pine bottom, and an African mahogany top.

I carved the lid based on a pattern from the Alhambra in Granada, Spain.

I got the details on how to construct the pattern using a compass and straightedge from the book Islamic Geometric Patterns.

The splines in the corners are some eucalyptus from Arizona I got from HokieKen, who got it from AZDave, who got it from AZWoody (part of the fun of swaps is the bonus items included and I try to pass on wood I've received in previous swaps). I thought it would offer a nice contrast to the butternut.

I realized after I shipped it that I don't even know the dimensions of the box. It's big enough to hold the plane, plus about 1/8 inch on the sides. The sliding lid has a 3/32 inch deep groove carved in it that makes room for the adjuster on the plane when it's as high as it can go, so the plane is very securely cradled within the box.

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Over Memorial Day weekend (of 2019), I stabilized some more wood. I had some eucalyptus from Arizona that a co-worker wanted stabilized. I forgot to take pictures of it before giving it to him, but with a wood as hard as that eucalyptus is, most of what you accomplish by stabilizing it with cactus juice is filling voids. But it's also brittle, and we were hoping it would be more workable after stabilizing. I'll update when I hear more about that.

I also did some spalted birch, which was about as light as balsa after it was completely dried. As you would expect, it soaked up a lot of cactus juice, but it's nice and solid and pretty workable now.

None of those pieces are quite big enough for a saw handle, unless I do the stubby handles that fit the Veritas backsaws. I might just. They are mostly under an inch thick, and about 4×6 inches (25×100x150mm).

There were also two tiny pieces of birch from a log I carved on a bit during last summer's vacation up north. These might make knife scales. The two tiny birch pieces are maybe 3/8×1-1/4×4 inches – 10×30x100mm.

And finally, there are three pieces of maple. One was spalted, and the other two were still pretty sound. I stuck them all in some blue-dyed cactus juice for about three hours, baked them, then stabilized them in the vacuum pot with the second batch of birch and clear juice. I think they're pretty, but I need to remember to start with bigger pieces. At least one of them will probably make a through-tang knife handle, though.

The rightmost maple piece is about 1-¼ inch square by 5 long. 30×30x125 mm. The others are wider but thinner. Maybe 1-3/4×3/4×5 inches, or 45×20x120mm.

And that's the end of the experiments from 2018 and 2019. I haven't set up my stabilizing rig again yet since we moved to New Mexico in August of 2019, but I'm hoping to do that over the winter (of 2022-2023), and have some more fun with stabilizing wood soon.

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