When you saw boards to length, getting the cut ends to be smooth, accurate, and square will help them fit more tightly with other parts, taking your projects to another level. Build yourself a shooting board to act as a guide for a sharp hand plane to slice across the end of the workpiece. It will make your parts true, even if your saw cuts aren’t perfect.
1) Start with the base—a 16″ by 16″ piece of 3⁄4″ MDF is a versatile size for the base, but you can also customize the length and width. One end of the base needs an open track for the plane to ride on its side. The track should be the width of your plane’s side cheek, and the depth should be equal to the distance from the edge of the plane’s sole to just past the blade edge. Waxing the track will ease the plane’s to-ing and fro-ing.
2) Attach a hardwood backstop fence (as tall as your plane blade is wide) at exactly 90 degrees to the track using glue and screws. This fence also supports the back of your workpiece to reduce tear-out as the plane exits the cut. (In turn, a small vertical chamfer at the rear corner of the fence will also prevent it from tearing out.)
3) On the opposite side, attach another strip of hardwood underneath to hook against the edge of your workbench.
4) To use the shooting board, hold the workpiece against the fence with its end projecting past the track edge by just the thickness of a shaving or two. With the plane on its side, blade facing the workpiece, slice the end grain. Take several fine cuts, sneaking up on your cut line.
Make some trial cuts in scrap to get the hang of it and check that your blade is square. The first time you use the board, you’ll shave a bit off the top of the track edge, which is fine. Once that’s done, you could glue a strip of fine sandpaper to the fence face to help grip the workpiece.
You can make a bigger shooting board, if you need it, or change the fence angle from 90 degrees to 45 degrees, or whatever angle you require. Before you know it, you’ll be making mitred frames with perfect joints.
This story originally appeared in our Mar/Apr ’23 issue.
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