I’m producing a country pine shelving unit for my parents, and I would like to have it match the other country pine furniture they have. The flat surfaces of the rest of their furniture are finished with a method called box-shaving in which the surface is covered with very shallow concave grooves along, and slightly skewed to the grain. I am looking for any information regarding how this process is accomplished. Is it done with a specialty plane, or a gouge? how does one smooth out any irregularities after the shaving part is complete, etc?
Thanks,
Abe
Replies
The two common methods I've seen to get the effect you're after, and occasionally used myself, are variations of the same thing. Both involve grinding the iron of a plane into convex cutting edge--- either a flat soled spokeshave or a block plane. Set the blade to protrude as much as you want the scalloping effect and go to it.
A smoothing plane could be used too, and if the surface being scalloped is concave you could use a convex soled spokeshave, and lastly there are old wooden moulding planes with round soles and irons.
Sanding after creating the scalloped surface should be none or minimal to prevent smoothing out crisply defined edges. Slainte.
Hi
There is (or rather was) a tool called a box shave. Stanley, Sargent, Record and others made them and I believe the German tool firm Kunz still do. I believe that the Stanley version was numbered #70 ( and Record #070). They comprise a short plane-type body attached to a long, forked handle through a pivot. They are used by pulling towards you rather in the manner of a Japanese plane. I have been told thay they were originally made so that wooden crates, boxes, etc. could have their stencilled or branded names removed thus allowing you to stencil/brand your own name on them. A sort of early packaging recycling.
Scrit
How wide are the concave grooves? Are they straight grooves or irregular?
If straight, then use a guide board, skewed at the proper angle, and find a plane or scraper of the appropriate width. Grind the blade to have the proper curve. A scraper probably would do better, but a lot of the scraper holders don't have straight sides making it more difficult to follow a straight edge. Some of the Stanley scrapers may have a blade that is to wide. Using a sharp scraper blade with just your hand (no blade holder) probably would work too. Scraping may work better as the cuts would be less aggressive than a bench plane and less prone to tear out.
I grind my scraper blades at 90 degrees then use the shaft of a router bit to put on a small 'hook'. Any other hard round steel will work to make the hook.
PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy (maker of fine sawdust!)
PlaneWood
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