Flemish Twist String Jig

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Prologue[/SIZE]

My project is a Flemish Twist Bow String Making Jig.

Now I must admit, I am a "Neanderthal Woodworker" (Galoot) at heart, and love to do things the old fashioned way as much as practical. However, I'm not a purist unless a client demands it, and is willing to pay for it. I will sacrifice a few electrons to speed my progress along where it will not effect the final "traditional look and feel" of the finished piece.

I also have a wood fetish. I have a compulsion to collect odd bits and scraps of unique wood, for "some future purpose", and love it when I can put one of those pieces to good use. While digging through my pile, I found a lovely piece of Honey Locust that was already roughly the right size, It had a protective seal-coat of Blond Shellac already applied about 10 years ago. So I grabbed it and my needful hand tools to get started:



I like laying out on paper, since it is easier to correct mistakes without leaving a lasting impression in the wood. I have a 36" wide by 1000' foot roll of red craft paper for this purpose. In some cases such as this one, I will adhere the paper to the workpiece using 3M's "Super 77" spray adhesive.



Just a light mist, let it dry until just slightly tacky, apply it and trim.
Hint: The longer you let it dry the easier it is to remove later.

I employed my beautiful Cocobolo handled Layout Knife made by my good friend Patrick Leach, proprietor of The Superior Works for the trimming task.
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Layout

I carefully laid out my dimensions on the paper for the "stepped" end.



Then measured out to the opposite end:

You get the idea, right?

OK, time to do some more careful measuring and layout:


I went back and triple-checked everything. Now is the time to correct ant errors before they are committed to the wood!



Being satisfied everything was spot-on, I made some dimples with my automatic center punch and exaggerated them with my (antique) ivory handled tapered reamer.


Next, I laid out and scribed the baselines for the "cutting groove" w/ my layout knife. The plan is to rout it out and possibly install some alternate, softer, wood in the "floor" of the dado to keep from dulling my cutting tool. possibly even bevel the shoulders a bit.

I went over all my "dimples" and lines with a sharpie marker to highlight them after the removal of the paper.




Time to remove the paper!

Obviously, I did not heed my own advice and wait long enough for the spray adhesive to dry before I applied it to the wood. But, as the wood already has a sealer coat of shellac, the application of a plastic kitchen scraper makes short work of it.



Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.. making sawdust!