Shaping

Shaping is one of the funnest aspects of building a cabinet. I finally get to leave the loud Machine Room and head to my bench and use my hand tools. My door is concave; looking from the outside. Which means when I place my door against the sides, the edge of the door does not match with the side of the cabinet. Pictured above is a line running down the side of the cabinet. I plane that portion off and let it taper so the back of the cabinet does not change in width. The sides now follow the curve of my door.
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Here is the top of my Cabinet. You can see that I have put a curve on the edge. I did this with my little brass Block Plane.



The front face of the top has been cut to follow the curve of the door. It is shaped with the same curve as the sides. I shape and smoothed out the face with a little spoke shave. It is a wonderful tool to work with. When it is tuned up just right it shapes the curve effortlessly. The spoke shave makes such fine shavings, that your finished edge feels like silk.

The shaping of the cabinet has taught me a lot. I have a better understanding of how to use my hand tools. I can now detect when my edges are dulling better than before. A quick sharpening, improves the performance of my tools, as well my work. There is still a lot more work. I am still shaping the top of the cabinet, cause I am not completely happy with the shape. I am working towards getting my cabinet to a finished surface and glued up. From there I will start building the dovetailed drawer.