396 



not leaning to or from you, and have it as low, if possible, as 

 the top of the bench ; because one cannot plane well when he is 

 obliged to hold his plane on a board as high as his arm-pits. 

 Jack off the edge the entire length, and then look over it to see 

 where it is a little the highest or lowest, and jack the high places 

 until the edge looks about straight, and then apply the jointer. Be 

 careful to keep the edge of the board at a right angle with the side 

 by using the try-square. In jointing a board or plank, beginners 

 and many old workmen, too plane off the edges near the 

 ends, in starting their plane and in running out, so that the edges 

 are convex from end to end. When a workman is apt to fall into 

 this error in jointing, he should not allow his plane to cut within 

 a foot of the end, until it seems highest at the end. Some work 

 men think if they cut a shaving the entire length of a board it 

 must be straight. But one may plane a shaving the entire 

 length of a short or long board, and it may not be straight by 

 half an inch. When the workman cannot tell by a glance of 

 the eye over the edge of a board whether it is straight or 

 not, he had better, if the edge of a board is a little rounding or 

 hollowing, strike a line on the side of it with a very small chalk 

 line, and then, with the drawing-knife and planes, it can be made 

 straight very easily and quickly. Some pretty good joiners 

 cannot tell always, simply by the eye, whether the edges of two 

 boards will make a close joint when placed together. The be 

 ginner may find it to his advantage to place the edges of two 

 boards together when he is jointing them, and then he will be 

 able to discover without any difficulty, how much must be planed 

 off in order to make a close joint. 



580. Some mechanics, when they look over the edge of a 

 board, cannot tell with accuracy whether it is convex, concave, 

 undulating, or entirely straight. And when it is undulating 

 they cannot go and put their finger on the highest point of the 

 edge of the board. The chief reason of this failure is, they 

 close one eye, when looking at the edge of a board, and then 

 endeavor to keep the eye on the highest place, until they can get 

 to it with the plane. This is all well enough. But when they 



