176 AMATEUR RODMAKING 



" kicking about the shop " for years, and was, 

 therefore, well seasoned. One was made a 

 trifle over 5 feet long and the other about 

 feet. The faces of each block are all 

 inches wide and absolutely true, as they were 

 machine sawed and planed. This gives spaces 

 for four grooves, one on each face. 



Taking the shorter block, with a pencil I 

 drew a line the full length of each face, each 

 line in the exact center. Then with a carpen- 

 ter's gauge, passed back and forth a number 

 of times, a clean furrow was cut. Then I pro- 

 cured a thin wood rabbet plane which had a 

 cutter half an inch wide. This iron I ground 

 down on each side on the emery wheel until it 

 fitted exactly in the center gauge (60 degrees). 

 Of course the bottom of the plane was planed 

 off to the same angle. 



Great care is at first necessary in deepening 

 the original furrow formed with the marking 

 gauge, for the narrow plane is likely to follow 

 the inequalities of the grain of the wood in- 

 stead of sticking to its proper groove. But 

 after a fair start has been made, this difficulty 

 is eliminated. 



We will assume that the first groove is to 

 be made J4 ' mc h ' m depth at one end, and % 

 inch at the other. Therefore, mark ^ at the 



