Finally after many months it’s finished! Oak head and idigbo handle (poor man’s oak the Whittens guy said). Both from offcut pieces. Danish oil. Big thanks to @lewisss for bandsaw and morticer help on the head , @CriticalTolerance for planar and thicknesser help for handle, @Twm for the Japanese saw, plane andcrasp that helped to make it.
Should have been more aggressive shaping the handle with the rasp. The handles stuck, despite a gap on the underside. But I’m dead happy, first go making anything with hand tools. Now I have to bang things with it : (
Things I learned:
- Read the wood grain before planing…hot lots of tear out initially.
- Start off with as square a piece as possible or at least one true flat side.
- Tilt the piece in mortiser to get a tapered mortice.
- Blunt spokeshaves = tear out. Surprise.
- Rasps are amazing.
- Japanese saws and hand planes are amazing
- Don’t plane or rasp outwards off the edge of the wood. Splinters.
- Need to work harder to impress the dog.
