Time truely does fly when you are having fun.

This January marks the 8th anniversary of Sauer & Steiner Toolworks and I cannot think of a better way to reflect on it than a plane building adventure with Joe (the “Steiner”). Joe stopped in over the holidays to start an an XSNo.4 for himself. It was great to be able to work together again - albeit independently... but it was fun to have him in the shop working away. As Joe was working and asking questions - I was reminded of how far all this has come over the years. It is incredible really. 10 years ago I did not even know what an infill plane was!

I was also reminded of just how much more I have to learn - and the models and styles that I have not yet explored. A perfect case in point... I took a bit of time over the holidays to work on the interior of the cutlery drawer in the kitchen. We have one of those big Henckels knife blocks on our counter and it drives me nuts - I hate clutter in the kitchen (or any work surfaces for that matter) - so this was a perfect opportunity to ditch it. We wanted a two storey solution for the drawer - a sliding try on the top for the actual cutlery - and the basement for the serving utensils and the knives. It is a big drawer - 4-1/2" deep x 18" x 18" with full extension drawer glides - so there was lots of room. A few sketches and dimensions later - it was time to build!

I had this great piece of curly maple that I thought would make a great “wrap” for the knife block. I sawed the veneer quite thick - 1/8", and then decided that I would do this “correctly” and miter the joint at the corner.

Hmm... I Don’t have the correct shooting board for this and the A11 mitre plane I am prototyping is not competed. Wait a minute - there is a piece of 3/4" plywood cut at a 45 that might work if I use the small mitre plane.




This quick and dirty setup worked better than I expected - and is a great little variation for shooting veneer. In a few passes - I had perfect 45 degree miters. It is a little hard to see the strip of veneer core plywood - it is screwed to the shooting board to hold it in place. The reason this worked is because most of the sole footprint fits on the 45 degree bevel - a very compelling reason for a narrow mitre plane:)



Here is a quick shot of the mitre beside an A5 to show how small it is - 5-1/2" long with a 7/8" wide blade, bedded at 20 degrees.

After this experience - I am all the more excited about the full sized A11.




Here is a detail shot of the knife block in the drawer to show the mitered veneer.



And the finished drawer with the top tray to the right...



... and the left.



And a quick shot of the dovetails in the top tray. These were the first dovetails I have cut since finishing the kitchen drawers a few months ago. I decided to “practice” on the lower tray because the dovetails would be hidden if I screwed something up. I went for “off the saw” dovetails again - and by the third one - I had it... just like riding a bike. And - I was thankful the first two were hidden:)