I had to look back to see where we were, dang that’s a lot of pictures, and that’s the ones that made the cut. Well we are coming down the pike with this one. So here we go.
so I started with marking the beam with a center for the marking point, blade, or what ever you want to call it. For the first couple I wil use a 5/64” drill bit. For some others I will use a nail about the same size. I could order in some material like tool steel rod at about the same size and shape it and then harden and temper. For at least one I’m going to make a cutting gauge and use a worn out saber saw blade and I’ll shape it sharpen it and then I’ll setup the beam to take the blade. It’ll be interesting to do and it’ll be a useful tool for my tool kit.
as I stated I mark the center for the point and I drill from both sides.
as you can see the 5/64” drill bit is about the same as a 4p finish nail.you could use a 1/16” drill bit but getting a bit smaller is difficult and I use 1/16” bits to drill the hole for the 5/64” point. That makes for a nice tight fit.
I clamp up the bit and I file a flat on one side I guess for about 3/16” by about half the width of the bit.
from there I grind an edge on the round side much the way you would grind the edge of a boll gouge the angle I just guessed I didn’t worry about it I just new I wanted something shallow.
something like this
I used a fine stone to flatten and polish the flat side. I touched the bevelside some, but it’s not an easy task with these big knuckle drug hands.
one of the last touches for the beams is to chamfer the ends.
drive the point into place and adjust. You can set the flat side either way. I like the flat side toward the head, that places it to the finished piece or what I want to use and the bevel side is toward the waste.
run a couple test runs and see how it marks
if you zoom in you will see it marked really well. I was satisfied anyway.
so for this one it’s time for finish, so I pulled the point and because I had it mixed up I used blonde shellac. I keep a ball pad made up in a jar that’s ready to go. I now will catch the the three on the bench up with this one and then start finishing them. The remaining seven I’ll work on when I can while I think about the next project on the list. I need to build a built in linen storage in our master bath, re-trim the bath and repaint the room. I may replace the floor I’m not certain yet.