Rod-making. 213 



But we have made undue haste. Before the glue stage 

 we must see that we have a glue joint, that is, a contact 

 between the surfaces to be united, so close that the place 

 of union is scarcely perceptible. To accomplish this your 

 plane-blade must have had frequent intercourse with the 

 oil-stone, for in this material more than any other noth- 

 ing but ruin can be accomplished with a dull tool. But 

 no matter how careful you may have been in this, the 

 fibre will be more or less roughened at the knots. Smooth 

 these by "draw-filing" with your "mill-saw" file, hold- 

 ing each strip singly and by itself in the groove. In or- 

 dinary filing the file is actuated in the direction of its 

 length; but this is not the case in "draw-filing." To do 

 the latter successfully, hold the file loosely in the hand 

 and close to the blade; extend the first finger so as to 

 bear upon the upper surface of the blade, and apply that 

 part of the under surface which is beneath the finger to 

 the work. Should you grasp the file firmly, and rely 

 upon the guidance of your hand alone to direct the file, 

 you would probably round the work more or less, there- 

 by impairing rather than improving your glue joint. 

 But by following the directions, if the file is not properly 

 applied at first, it instantly adapts itself to the surface 

 beneath ; and this, if flat at first, as it will be from the 

 operation of the plane, remains flat. 



Now move your file to and fro, but sideways instead 

 of in the direction of its length. It is important that 

 this be well understood, because of its frequent use in 

 rod-making. Whenever inequalities occur to which it 

 is inconvenient to apply the plane, as for example, should 

 you so mismanage your rounding scraper as to form 

 local ridges, these are removed in this manner. 



Having thus removed any local roughness caused by 



