This is another entry from John who is referring to his previous post Titled “First Class Practice”
As you recall I am making the base of the Trestle Table and am in the process of making notches in two members so when they are glued together I will have a mortise. After sawing into the waste a number of times, I removed it by hitting it with a hammer. A good Maydole hammer no doubt, but any hammer will do. Here is what the joint looked like. Not only doesn’t this look nice but I don’t think I am going to get a good glue joint.
So I took out my Stanley vintage router plane and went to work. Here is the result!
See how much tearout there is on the near-right side? And this was one of the best examples. I was planing directly across the grain and boy did I make a mess. I learned that I could avoid this by canting the plane and paying close attention to the wood that made contact with the iron. It was kind of like saddling an Elm chair seat with an Inshave. If I continued to make angle adjustments I could get a good result. I also used the two top sides of the work as a reference for the sole of the router plane.
I had to adjust the depth a bit deeper than intended but this is the final result. You can still see where big area of tearout was, but this will make a good glue joint.
For explanation purposes here is how I used the sole of the router plane on the work.
John