The old fashioned way of doing it, but new to me.

To glue the two halves of the top or back together the edges must be perfectly straight and flat. This is called ‘jointing’ the edge. I have been using a system using a router and a straight edge, with final truing with sandpaper stuck to a machined flat metal bar. Works OK, but takes a little while.

The traditional way of doing this was to use a ‘jointer’ plane, which is a long flat plane used to get the edge straight and flat. Doing thin top and back wood one would lay the plane on it side on the bench, with the wood also lying flat supported on what is called a ‘shooting board’. Then the very sharp plane is run along the edge of the wood to ‘joint’ it.

I was recently riding around and passed a woodworker who was selling off some of his surplus tools. One was a 22 inch jointer plane that looked to be in very good condition. I got it for a very reasonable price. I had to re-grind and sharpen the blade but that is all that was needed.

Rather than set up a shooting board, which I found rather awkward with a larger piece of wood I decided to clamp the plane upside down in the vise and clamp on an aluminum bar as a right-angle fence. With this setup I can get a good grip on the wood, press it against the fence and push it across the plane. Works well. I can quickly and easily achieve a perfectly jointed edge.