orepass

Reflecting upon Paul Seller’s foundations class which I took a year ago, one of the techniques that still holds my fascination is the use of a hand plane to round over the edges of boards. Until Paul showed the technique I could not fathom that a hand plane turned at a 45 degree angle would not cause tear out.

Rounding the cane is another technique that is quick simple and only requires a hand plane. This cane is tapered, round on one end and oval on the other. I simply marked lines on the sides as guides and converted the four sided piece into an octagon and continued working the sides until they are round. It took about 15 minutes.

There is final shaping left to do on the handle and the final glue up and wedging (not sure if that’s a word?), but before that I’m considering whether to shape the cane or let it remain straight. When I began the project I had every intention of creating a spiral, now I am looking at the wood grain and a couple of areas of tear out and reconsidering.

 Cutting the spiral looks relatively easy but I think with the grain it will be very difficult to smooth. Sometimes less is more and I may just leave the cane straight and let the wood speak for itself. Besides I still have half a stool to complete….