Tuesday, August 22, 2017

The Slow Grain Movement

Use your favorite search engine (I don't Google, I DuckDuckGo things) to find out more.
Search terms...."Carol Koebbeman" "Cut Matching Curves"

The wood for the Iron Bark Kimono will wrap around from side to front to side.  There's a slow S curve in the grain that I want to follow.  Rather than forcing a straight joint I want to join the wood following somewhat the natural flow of the grain.
The Slow Grain Movement is here.

Years ago I remembered reading an article about routing matching curves and took a short tour of the internet to find it.
Basically you construct two templates.  The first template is used the make a perfectly matching mirror template.  Rout one side with the first template, rout the other side with the second and they should match perfectly.  Whatever perfect may mean when working with wood.


Roughly cut the curve into a 1/4"MDF, hot glue down blocks, hot glue a thin strip of MDF onto the blocks.


The first three blocks are used so the curve is smooth.  You then start to glue in more blocks around the curve.  This is the first side done.

Clamp another thin strip of MDF to the first template making sure it is tight to the first curve.
Another piece of MDF (the other side of the roughly cut first piece) and hot glued blocks and you're done.
Visually aligning the the two templates on the wood.
Don't have any "action" shots of the routing.  Did not expect such a nice match from the technique but upon first flipping the two boards into position, they just fell right together.  They are not being glued in this shot, just looking at the joint.
Thank you Carol Koebbeman.


Bonus pics!!!!
Laying out the legs.
John and Tony singin' and playin'

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