Tips please for cutting large bevel

[Gene Davis]

On a large tabletop, I want to cut a large bevel with grain and cross grain. Top is 15/16" thick and the big shallow bevel is to be 7/16" deep at edge and zero at 1-1/2" in.

Was thinking of powering off a 45 down to the required depth with router, placing knifemarked line in at the 1.5 inboard line, then taking off waste with a big jack to get close, then switch to a smoother.

your thoughts?

[glenn bradley]

That is pretty much how I would go about it; hog off the bulk of the waste with power tools and plane to finished dimension.

[Jim Matthews]

Score a clear knife line where you want the bevel to end, on the long grain side first.
Note how Jim Tolpin has the drawknife tipped at an angle and skewed.

The knife is undoubtedly sharp.

I would use a drawknife to get close, or a scrub plane.
Finish with your finely honed jack at the end.

When you're satisfied with the long grain sides,
trace the chamfer across the end grain in pencil.

I would at least score the top face of the board,
with a knife line to prevent lifting of grain.

Use a smaller plane to start the chamfer
inwards, from the ends of the exposed boards.

If you start with end grain,
blowing out a long run of the side
is all too easy to do.

[Derek Cohen]

On a large tabletop, I want to cut a large bevel with grain and cross grain. Top is 15/16" thick and the big shallow bevel is to be 7/16" deep at edge and zero at 1-1/2" in.

Was thinking of powering off a 45 down to the required depth with router, placing knifemarked line in at the 1.5 inboard line, then taking off waste with a big jack to get close, then switch to a smoother.

your thoughts?

Gene, what you want to remove is really not much, and far too much trouble to bother with power tools.

I'd use a scrub plane for removing both the end grain and long grain waste. The end grain I would finish with a low angle plane, if possible, and use a smoother on the long grain.

It is possible to plane Jarrah endgrain with a scrub plane. A sharp blade is essential…










Once close to the scribed lines it was the turn of the LA Jack (with a low cutting angle).



Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Belair]

I had the same quandary when doing my first under top bevel and ended up doing it simply by planing to the scribe lines. It's easier than it might seem.

[ken hatch]

The only thing I would add to the plane it advice is to use a Japanese or wood stock plane shaped like a Japanese plane with out a tote, either will make the job easier for a couple of reasons. First is light weight, the lightest metal plane can get pretty heavy working on vertical faces, the other is with either wood stock plane is you can place both hands on the plane and have great control of it it in both directions while holding the cutter 45 degrees to the grain.

My goto wood stock for chamfers:

[David Weaver]

Drawknife and plane. Since it's round, you'll always be able to drawknife across or with the grain. The bevel is big enough that if you don't work with a drawknife all the time, you'll have time to get used to it going around the thing with initial cuts. If you're familiar with using one, then it'll be a twaddle.

Incidentally, my parents' furniture that is of advanced enough age has drawknifed bevels on the back of the raised panels and no cleanup was done to it (it's not necessarily sloppy, you can just tell that time was a factor). The bevels on the front were cleaned up with a plane after roughing them to shape with a knife.