First scarfs

Today I finally got around to making the first of the scarf joints for the inner gunwales. I set up under our big Jacaranda tree (with some cool tunes playing) and started nutting it out.

To save time, and in a gesture toward accuracy, I clamped all four of the lengths together and measured/marked out the bevel angles simultaneously.

I was hoping to bevel two lengths at a time (staggered so that the bevel marks line up), but unfortunately my sharpening guide can only really fit around one strip at a time. Oh well.

Next I needed to work out how far back from the end I'd have to place the guide, so that the correct angle for sanding would be maintained. I used a straight strip of wood to eyeball something approximating decent alignment (should be right, shouldn't it?).

Because the strips are pretty long, I figured I ought to try clamping the strip, and work the torture board back and forth.

I also tried to support the very end as much as I could, since theoretically this edge would be getting more and more flimsy as work progressed.

Long story short, this approach didn't really work very accurately, so I reversed it and tried again.

Still not ideal and a bit fiddly, but much better. I continued as carefully as I could, stopping regularly to check my results. The following picture is what I ended up with.

Again, not overly perfect, but way better than I thought I was going to be able to achieve. The mating surfaces still had a very slight curvature cross-wise, so I used a bit of sandpaper and a timber strip to flatten it out as best I could. The next photo shows the bevels put together.

So after all that, I have my first scarf joint. Not ideal, but should suffice. Bit of a gap here and there, but about as good as I can get it. I'm told that epoxy can be quite forgiving with stuff like this. Hopefully my next scarf (for the other inner gunwale) will be better.