Scribing Shelves

The other day I had to scribe a shelf to go on top of a plastered wall to mark the transition between that wall and the stone wall above. 

A well scribed shelf!

That meant scribing it to the stone work. 

I use a pair of compasses to mark mine, setting it to the widest point and then marking the board from there before cutting it with the jigsaw. As I work on old buildings a lot, it's a job I have to do quite often so over the years it's become easier and easier - although I challenge anyone to get it right first time!

Scribing Oak Skirting

I had to do some fairly difficult oak skirting last week. It had to be scribed both ways, into the floor and the wall by as much as an inch in places.

Showing how bad some of the walls were

With something like this I try to limit myself to being allowed to make three sets of cuts on each piece. One for the floor, one for the wall and then one just to make it a little tighter, all marked with a pair of compasses then cut with either a jigsaw or the electric plane and finished off by hand..

I can get it pretty tight in those cuts.

The scribe cut for the floor - a slight bow in it I'm sure you'd agree!

A bend in this wall made it really difficult as oak doesn't like to bend!

 The customer was really pleased with the result and it now means that the room can be finished. The pictures don't really show just how far out the floor was!