Sidetracked

I was planning on roughing out some more infill sets – but got blissfully sidetracked. My goal was to rough out a few more Ebony front buns for some A5ss’s, a few more A1 panel plane handles and front buns and a couple XsNo.4’s. As I was gathering the various pieces of Ebony, I noticed the massive 9” long Ebony front bun for the 28-1/2” A2 jointer. It was one of those moments where I saw the negative space outside the chalk lines and thought “hey… I wonder if the off-cut from the front is big enough for the front bun for an XSNo.4?” So I put down the Ebony 2x4 in my arm and walked over – with my head cocked over to one side wondering “Hmmmmm….”.

“Well I’ll be darned – it’ll work!”

Note; this was phase one of the derailment.

So I figured I had better remove the front section of the bun just to make sure :) … you can see where this is going right.

But in order to do that… I had to square up the front bun for the 28-1/2” jointer – so I would have 3 sides square… it would make things so much easier. And if I was going to take the time to square the front bun… may as well fit it too.

Now entering phase 2.




The fitting went extremely well – a snug fit over the entire length… something I was a little curious about. With the block fit… it was time to remove the front bun for the XSNo.4 – what I started doing in the first place.

I gotta tell you – with that front “off-cut” removed (the XSNo.4 bun) – the jointer bun started looking pretty cool. I checked the time… yeah – I could do a little more.

A few cuts here, a few cuts there and it started looking even cooler. So I marked and dated the XSNo.4 front bun… that surely bought some more time on the jointer bun?

Firmly planted in phase 3.

The shoulders that transition from the tops of the sidewalls to the bun were next. Boy, they were long - about 8-1/2”. I removed as much as I could with a handsaw and then switched to chisels. This is some pretty sweet Ebony and it cut beautifully. Of course my Imai chisels worked flawlessly – whether I was striking them with a mallet or paring by hand.

With the shoulders done, I could further refine the bun shape. Here is where I left it at the end of the day.