Back to Woodworking, Sorta.

I purchased the above chisel so I could modify the cutting edge a bit. I'd read about angling the blade to better reach corners and for better paring, so that's what I decided to do.

I marked the back of the blade so I had something to follow, and then used a bench grinder to slowly grind it to the angle I wanted.

Here it is mostly done. I didn't grind it to a perfectly sharp edge because the grinding wheel moves fast enough it would have overheated the metal and caused it to lose its temper. As it was, I held the blade to the grinder until it had started change color, but I don't think I had actually managed to keep from ruining the temper.

While working on the chisel I also planed a 4X4 down so it was the same size as the bench legs I had made. I wanted to practice making the tenon joints, and decided to use this scrap I had lying around.

Here it is, pretty much the same size as the bench leg. I really like my new planer!

Here's one of the mortises I had squared up. I think it turned out nicely, but as I later find out, it wasn't squared up well enough.

I used the dado blade to cut the tenon. I made it bigger than the mortise so I could trim it down.

Looking good so far.

Here's the planes I will be using to trim the tennon.

I finished trimming the scrap piece of 4X4 and acheived what I felt was a satisfactory fit, so I cut the legs.

I clamped scrap pieces of wood on the edges so when planing it wouldn't spinter the edge.

Back to the chisel. I used a combination of different grits of sandpaper and this spiffy diamond plate to put a rasor fine edge on the chisel.

Back to the bench. I wanted to start working on the bench top. I needed to joint one edge square so I could rip the board on the table saw. I screwed a 2X4 to my current bench to hold the board on its edge, and also put a stop on the end. This allows me to focus on handling the planer.

The stop is just a piece of oak I had lying around. It conveniently had a beveled edge. I screwed it on the bench so that the bevel leads toward the bench. As I push forward on the planer the board is forced against the stop and the stop also forces the board against the bench. I read about a similar item on another bench, and have plans to put something similar on the finished woodworking bench.

It looks like all the previous experience I obtained hand planing is paying off. I'm far from perfect at it but I feel it is really pretty good. It's not perfectly square, but it is only off by a degree or so. If I was gluing the boards edge to edge I'd need to do a better job, but to run it through the table saw it has proven sufficient for the job.

I ran the boards through the table saw and came up with 7 that were 3.25" wide. Ultimately I want a 3 inch thick table top, so I'm cutting it a bit wider.

Here I am getting ready to run the boards through the planer. The boards are already just a touch under an 1" thick. I decided I'll make all the boards 3/4" thick as it makes all the math easier on me. There are times I really wish we had adopted the metric system, but oh well.

Yay the boards are all planed! The best part is I even figured out how to reduce or eliminate board snipe, so they are nearly perfect.

I decided to clean up and call it a night, I was getting hungry and the temperature was dropping. I took the boards inside and stickered them. I'm really hoping the board doesn't twist before I can get them glued together. I'll be glueing the top together in sections. I'm hoping by doing it in sections I can keep everything aligned and it will turn out how I want it to.