Incense Tower - Miter Joints

Mitering the Edges

I wanted to miter the long edges of the tower, but the planks are too long and too narrow to set up a fence and use a saw. Instead, I clamped the plank down and used a block plane to chamfer the edges.

All was going well when I marked out the area to be removed.

Disaster!

My plane was dull, and the mouth was deformed.

This did not go well.

I tried to sharpen by hand, but I guess I didn't keep the iron perfectly straight. I grabbed two small blocks of scrap and made a sharpening jig.

Practice

I managed to get a good edge, but it took hours. My jig was 22.5°, and block plane bevels are usually 20°. I ground a new bevel into it on the whetstone.

That's when I noticed I was doomed from the start. The mouth of the plane is crooked. I only had a small area of the iron I could use.

I had to buy more maple anyway, so I decided to practice on the rest of the planks.

I think I did pretty well, all things considering. The left board is the first one I chamfered. The right board is after I sharpened the plane iron.

In the end, though, it was still a waste of two days.

Then, I noticed something that completely made my week... Continued in part 3.