Scarfing

To say that manually scarfing plywood is anything but grueling is an egregious falsehood, and claims to the contrary should be treated with the utmost skepticism.

It is no wonder that people smarter than I have developed contrivances to make scarfing easier. Purchase or manufacture of circular saw jigs, router sleds, and electric plane accessories can eliminate the excruciatingly laborious process of hand planing scarf joints. Live and learn.

Four full sheets of 3/4” Maranti plywood were wrangled onto sawhorses and the edges staggered by six inches — the length of the scarf face. Clamping the edges of the stack brought them into alignment so that the joints turned out straight.

Guidelines drawn on the wood’s edges defined the bottom of the scarf. The electric plane used to begin removing material became heavy and unwieldy with time. No amount of repositioning or body mechanics made it easier to use. I switched to a freshly sharpened block plane.

Hours of hand planing, requiring four blade sharpenings, made the scarfs as flat and even as I can make them. Holding a flat edge against their faces reveals slight imperfections that the grace of thickened epoxy can readily remedy.

Unfortunately, eight sheets of 3/8” plywood still require scarfing. Perhaps a better use of the electric plane or a scarfing jig will make the next session less daunting. Perhaps not.

3/4” sheets are pulled into position using temporary clamping blocks and quick clamps. Maneuvering the 70-pound sheets into a uniformly spaced and even stack is tricky.

Guidelines on the edges of the 3/4” sheets defines the scarf.

The Ryobi electric plane connected to a vacuum makes the initial rough cuts. The need to repeatedly reach into the middle of a 2’ deep, 4’ wide area of the scarf became taxing and reduced the quality of the cuts.

Sharpening the low-angle block plane. This Lie Nielsen may be my most used boat-building tool.

Planing until each layer of plywood is relatively straight is a good guide.