Should have left half of those shaving on the board

The perfect board must read square and flat wherever I put a square to it.

The simple to describe exercise humbles me.

I'm pretty good at jointing long grain (hence a good glued edge joint was relatively painless, a few corrections and adjustments, and I was there). Surfacing and end-grain, I'm less proficient at. The additional width of the smoothing plane iron, the increased surface area of the board: all the friction adds up and my plane starts skipping and I want to get a running start to wind up into my stroke. And end-grain: the endless honing once you discover the little white skid marks left behind by your cut will try your patience.

I also tend to lose sight of the big picture. I was nearly 1/16" out of square because I was obsessing with the spinning trick with a square to check for flatness. Don't ask me how it happened. I declare bankruptcy and lopped off the ends on the table saw, honed my low-angle block plane, and began again.

And the constant paranoia when checking for square: is my square out of square? it is slightly curved causing me to read it wrong? is my bench even flat? wait, which are my references faces and edges?

I'm close, but not perfect.

Maple and I will have a love-hate relationship henceforth.

Never have I missed poplar (soft, gentle, forgiving poplar) so much.

As soon as I declare enmity with maple, of course, David presents me with a beautiful piece of Japanese maple for my spokeshave handle. And I'm in love with maple again. (The little, dark piece of lignum vitae.)

I got a new tool (the tiny saw) today. My dovetail saw was, well, a bit aggressive for what I've been trying to do (like cutting through dowels).

There's a great library in the foyer. I found Nakashima's Soul of the Tree today and got to pick up where I left off at home.

jess ouyang

day 6