Cove Cutting

I am getting ready to shape my two floating panels. I enjoy working with my hand tools a lot. The stock of Olive that I have is quite thick. Even though it takes a plane wonderfully, it is a dense wood and would require many blade sharpenings. I have decided to remove a large portion of the stock with the table saw and finesse the shape with my planes. I'm going to use an old carpenters trick to remove the waste. I will make a cove cut on the table saw.



I set up a fence that runs diagonal to the blade. Now instead of the blade making a thin little saw kerf, it will cut a hollow that matches the circumference of the saw blade.



I made a test jig to make sure I had the right angle and blade height. I have to be absolutely sure that I am not taking too much out. I cannot ruin this piece. Olive is a very pricey wood. I start by making very light passes over the blade. The machine room is filled with the wonderful smell of olive. Much better than burning olive; which I imagine would be quite unpleasant.



I removed most of the material that I wanted to. Now I will start shaping it with my planes.



The Olive is going to complement the Sycamore so well!