We finished assembling the pieces and all that was left to do was screw in the screws, make the plugs that hide the screw heads and glue them in. After the glue on the plugs dried my students used a chisel and carefully pared the excess wood. Using a chisel instead of a flash-cut saw was a good opportunity to let them acknowledge the importance of leading the chisel with the grain. Even though they used the "bevel down" technique this was not always enough to prevent some tear out … unless they turned the chisel around and found the right spot to pare the protruding plug with the grain.
And here are my students' finished pieces…
Here are some supplies and tools we find essential in our everyday work around the shop. We may receive a commission from sales referred by our links; however, we have carefully selected these products for their usefulness and quality.