Flush cutting a dowelSome of my free plans, such as my workbench plan or my simple table plans call for dowels to be flush cut with the surface, and I suggested using a chisel. A reader emailed me saying he had difficulty with that, so I figured this might be a topic that's worth further discussion.
![]() But this article is not so much about having all the right tools, so I'll show how to do it without a flush cut saw. Fact is, I have been woodworking for so long without one that I never remember to use it when I actually need to flush cut something. Usually, I just put the work piece on my bandsaw or table saw to cut things nearly flush, then use a chisel or belt sander to finish it off.
This works if the chisel is sharp and the dowels dowels are of a sufficiently hard wood such as oak. But for softer woods, such as birch, it leaves a messy surface.
I'm holding the chisel in place with my left hand, while my right hand turns the chisel side to side (more of a yaw motion in airplane terminology), causing the tip of the chisel to move side to side as it moves forward. As long as I'm taking a very thin slice off the wood and my chisel is sharp, I don't need a lot of force to drive the chisel through the wood. Merely pushing it forward with my right hand is enough. With the much lighter forces involved, the chisel is also much less likely to dig into the surrounding wood.
A sharp chisel is essential, but a sharp chisel alone is not enough to guarantee a clean cut. Both cuts were made with the same chisel.
You might be wondering about the grain on the dowels. These dowels are made of laminated
layers of veneer. Seems kind of odd, but they were the best dowels I could find in that size.
All the dowels at The Home Depot, last time I checked, were too inaccurate to be even usable,
and they felt so light that I'd guess they were made out of poplar. Surely, dowel joints
can be just about as good as
mortise and tenon joints, but only if you can
find suitable dowels.
How I sharpen my chiselsMuch has been written about sharpening, and the topic almost seems to be a religious one, but I'll add my two cent's worth anyway.I see myself as more of a sharpening barbarian. I don't own one of those fancy expensive Tormek sharpeners, nor do I own any oil stones or any of that fancy stuff. But I thought I'd include a few notes about how I sharpen my tools. ![]() The wheel runs at about 3500 RPM, fast enough to make sparks. So I have to be careful not to let the tool overheat. But this wheel produces a very smooth surface, smooth enough to sharpen jointer knives. I grind the bevel, and usually also briefly put the chisel flat on the surface to grind the flat part as well.
I have also at times used a buffing wheel instead of the strop, but I keep the strop in a drawer in my workbench, so it's always close at hand. An even more barbaric method I have used is to go straight from the fine wheel on my bench grinder to the buffing wheel. I only use that technique for knives and other edges that don't need to be super precise, but it's surprising how good an edge you can get moving from the bench grinder straight to the buffing wheel! See also: More Woodworking techniques on my Woodworking website |