Making dowels.

@troykitch I do not, just eyeball it and tweak as needed :-) that’s a nice looking jig though!

@aa That's a great way to get some nice, bespoke dowels. The jig produces uniform dowels, but it's certainly not as elegant: just pounding wood through a hole!

@troykitch it really does. I enjoy the process: i use my small carving axe to breakout the rough pieces, then whittle with a knife, then cut down to size +1/4” with my backsaw. Brace and bit to create the hole, shop mallet to pound them in, then flush-cut saw for a finished look.

This particular part of the project required 56 dowels, they are all unseen on the back, but I know they are there and that’s all that matters 😂

@aa I get that — it's the "paint the back of the fence" ethic, I aspire to the same code of workmanship. I'd love to see the project that requires 56 unseen, hand-cut dowels. It's good to meet another hand tool woodworker here!

@troykitch it actually kinda looks like a fence…but isn’t one :-) I’ll share photos once completed. What type of projects do you enjoy working on?

@aa I look forward to seeing it! I like small projects (furniture, boxwork, and the like) and also enjoy making shop tools and appliances to use with my bench.