Brief Part II

When last I left, we were at this stage:

The frame was assembled on the briefcase, but the panel edges extended all around the frame and needed to be trimmed. 

Here was a little angle I chipped to prevent blowing out the end grain. 

I had a big long explanation typed up to explain what is going on here and what blow out is and the subtleties involved, but honestly it was getting way too wording and I was doing a poor job explaining. So I deleted it. Basically I need to take more pictures and devote another posting to it. 

Whoops! Trimmed a little too deep...

But thats why smoothing planes were invented.

Now it was time to cut the sucker open. The first task is to strike a line all around the box where the cut will be. This is easily done with a marking gauge. Note where the line falls on the dovetail and how the irregular spacing of the joint makes sense now.

My plan was to start each cut in the corners with the dovetail saw and then finish them off with the big (and new to me) sash saw. Here is an initial corner cut:

Remember, on Western saws, the cut is on the push stroke; so here Im cutting to the right. Ive stopped the cut right before the saw enters the tail board. Ive done this so that Im not cutting "uphill" or against the grain. If this cut was to proceed down into the tail board, the saw teeth would be tearing out the grain and leaving a ragged cut instead of shaving the wood and leaving a smooth cut as it has in the pin board.

Moving up to a bigger saw (with a new handle by Yours Truly)...

...and just trying to connect those corners with as straight a line as possible:

This is actually pretty difficult.

Soon one cut...

 ...leads to another:

and another and another and then:

Taa-daa!

Then I just added SOSS hinges...

...and stained it:

Actually I beveled some edges and then I stained it. 

So thats where things sit now. I still need handle and catch hardware but that stuff is easy to install. Im already on the next project actually...you can see a sneak peek in the background of the last picture there. Yeah, thats some wild grain going on up there and its really tough to work with.

Stay tuned.