I’ve been cutting stopped chamfers by hand today on the hay rake stretchers. I’m taking it slow, focusing on process (an approach that serves to keep me out of my head).
After an hour or so of experimentation, I settled on this technique:
I start by marking the stops in pencil and the edges of the chamfer with a cutting gauge. I then hog off the bulk of the material with my drawknife, using chamfer guides to limit the depth of cut.
The drawknife is leaving some chatter on the workpiece, so I leave some material at the stops. I use my block plane to clean up the chatter. To define the curves of the stops, I turned to my carving chisels. My 3/4″ No. 6 sweep chisel does a nice job of defining the curve.
I settled on the first method I found that gave me repeatable results, but I’m sure there are other methods out there. What methods have you found success with?
Note: I’ve uploaded the full-sized photos for clarity.
life, revisited 
That looks like a straight blade German style drawknife. I would probably use my curved blade for what you’re doing. I had a shaving horse for some time and let it got a few years ago. it would be easier that that bench vise for holding the wood and keeping control of the work. But going slow and easy with concentration is always necessary too. Good post.
Thanks Ed. I appreciate your thoughts! A shavehorse would be nice here. The tail vise is capable of a surprising amount of clamping force, but I’d really like to get a feel for the ergonomics of the shavehorse. (I’d hoped to build one last Christmas for my son, but I ran out of time with the other gifts.)
Looking forward to seeing the finished table. Your pictures are quite small, so I cant tell, are you doing lambs tongue’s? That is my favorite feature for a stopped chamfer. I wrote a blog post recently the first time I cut them. My Stanley chamfer shave really earned it keep there. http://alaskawoodworker.wordpress.com/2013/02/17/lambs-tongue-stopped-chamfers/
Thanks for that article, Jonathan! The chamfer shave looks like a great tool for the job. I’ll have to keep an eye out for one. I hadn’t seen a precise definition of a lamb’s tongue before. Mine are a cove shape rather than an ogee. I can see the appeal of the ogee – it’s definitely not a shape you’ll get from a router.
I didn’t realize my pictures were turning out so small. I appreciate the feedback. Maybe I need to stop blogging from my cell phone!