Thread: V block using hand tools only

First is choose a bit of wood where the slope of the grain is in your planing favour.
Then with the wood you want to use being all true , no twist , square edges and parallel in width and thickness , mark out all lines off the front edge .
Then accurately draw what you want , the V, on both ends .
I sometimes do that bit with paper and glue it on , when I'm doing mouldings. This is to simple a shape for that though.

Then you could rough out 75% to 85% with a razor sharp chisel and take it down to the line with a rebate plane or a shoulder plane , the longer the better.
You could also rough out with the table saw doing a row of cuts .

If you want to get more accurate then you could finish with sand paper glued around a form and sand it . scribble pencil marks on the surface first to show where and what comes off first.

Rob

What about getting 2 pieces of perfectly square wood and joining them at right angles and then marking out and cut/plane off the corner at 45º.
Once you have enough of a flat surface at the corner the unwanted bits can be cut off on the table saw to get the shape you desire

once you have one V block you can make one out of a solid pice timber.

Thanks Rob and Bob.

I will try the chisel method of paring down to the required line, didn't have much success with the handsaw ie it took ages and was pretty untidy. I don't have a shoulder plane but have always wanted one, the rebate plane I have is a Stanely RB10 certainly not high end but will probably do the job, got one of those short blades that are hard to sharpen so need to make up a jig for that.

Bob your method sounds good but what do you mean by your last statement that once you have one V block you can make one out of a solid pice timber?

Originally Posted by Tiger

Thanks Rob and Bob.

I will try the chisel method of paring down to the required line,

If you plane up a straight stick with a 45 degree edge , you can clamp it down to the top of your work when your close to your mark , and the flat side of your chisel slides on that as a guide.

Rob

Originally Posted by Tiger

Bob your method sounds good but what do you mean by your last statement that once you have one V block you can make one out of a solid pice timber?

I meant you can put a piece of solid timber into the V-block you made and use a TS to cut a V in it.

Thanks again Rob and Bob.

Rob, good idea and something I think I can handle.

Bob, very creative, simple but I wouldn't have thought of it in a million years.

Had a go at doing this with a sharp chisel, must say that it is still challenging and requires a fair bit of time. The end result still wasn't what I would call accurate but better than my first effort. I love using hand tools but on this one a table saw with a tilting blade saves a bit of heart-ache and time.

If I was doing this I would use the same approach you would use to make a sliding dovetail. You need a saw gauge, or fence, set at 45 degrees which you clamp to the board being cut. You hold the blade of your handsaw flat against this fence as you saw to the required depth. Then you flip it and cut the other side. If you take your time you should have a reasonable finish. If you want it better than off the saw, then you would need a rebate or shoulder plane. I would cut just shy of the line and then sneak up on it with the plane. Or sandpaper wrapped around a block would clean it up a bit. Or you could use a card scraper.

To make the saw gauge you need to cut a 45 degree angle on the edge of a board of the appropriate length and then screw a flat piece to this to support the saw blade. So in section it looks a bit like a 'V'. Making sure that the fence part is not too wide so that the spine of the saw comes into contact with it before you get to the depth you want to cut.

Thanks Silent that sounds like it will give you a fairly accurate cut, I didn't know there were so many different ways of performing this task, all better than what I had started with .