This week I spent a lot of time hand shaping bench backs for a large seating project. If I could find a faster, less back breaking method to complete this task I probably would. However, the feel of the hand finished piece has slight imperfections, undulations, which add to rather than detract from the overall feel.
The meat of the material was removed on the band-saw with the table set at a jaunty angle. The cut was as tight as I dared to the final thickness. This leaves me a flat, rough, angled surface, which I then have to shape into a beautiful, smooth curved surface. First of all I use the belt sander where I can, to remove material quickly down to the lines I scribed in with my custom scratch stocks.
Then the hard work really starts. The remaining wood is removed with rasps. I use a pair of really good quality, hand-stitched rasps of different coarseness. The roughing out is done with a number 3 rasp, called a hog, and then a finer number 9 is used to tidy up. This leaves me with the final shape although not the final finished surface. The next stage is smoothing everything off with a cabinet scraper and another bucket load of elbow grease.
The final step is sanding followed by a visit to the osteopath.
