Post #62358 by Basement Kahuna on Wed, Nov 26, 2003 10:55 PM

What you see here are two of my "duckbills" that I make. They are ugly as sin, but very functional. Their purpose is for plunging very deep guide cuts in a log very smoothly and quickly, so you don't have to remove wood in as many layers. I make them by taking old chisels as I need them that I bought at the flea or pawn shop and grinding them down on my bench grinder as shown to a very thin (appx.) 1/16th of an inch for a lenghth of about 1 1/2-2 inches from the tip. I then hone the chisel's new tip on all three edges to a razor sharp point. Why all three? This keeps the sides of the chisel from pushing away at the wood on either side of the blade (creating splits in the wood), instead slicing right through it for a nice, clean, split-free cut. The last photo is of my cheap foam stadium seat...these can be a lifesaver to the ass if you're straddling a log for hours on end! Foam is a good thing to have pieces of as well to rest your knees on. The two heavy iron log holders you see there are cut pieces of railroad track, available at many feed and seed stores for pathborder.

[ Edited by: Basement Kahuna on 2003-11-26 23:01 ]