progress!
Yesterday I rived another piece from my white oak log. It is the one on the left. By this morning, black stains show where steel wedges were used.
and a closer look at the surface:
get to work with my monster draw knife:
I flatten a face in the ray plane, and then square an edge to it. I can then use a marking gauge to set the thickness of the piece, 13/16".
Once I have two parallel faces, and one square edge, I mark out the shape of the arm, and bandsaw roughly to size. Then clean up with drawknife, spokeshaves and block plane. Elia doesn't use a plane, but I fine it invaluable for getting more consistent lines. Next image is using a smaller drawknife to begin the rounding over of the arm. You can see how subtly it can shape. Then I use spokeshaves, and my beading tool. The arm is ready for steaming, you can see how many shavings are left. These make great kindling, and are saved, dried and used in the woodstove.
It took about 2 hours to go from the rived blank to ready for steaming.
I meant to take a series of photos of the bending, but after getting everything set, I forgot to hit the start button on the camera. Oh well, maybe next arm.