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The last couple of months have seen me wrap up a couple of pieces - these are No. 13 and No. 14: No. 13 is Maple (jaws, free-standing base) with Purpleheart (leg, mouth, knob assembly, guide rails): No. 14 is lightly figured Walnut (jaws) with Curly Maple (leg, mouth, knob assembly, guide rails, free-standing base), along with a Cocobolo knob: I'm quite happy with how these turned out, and with a few reps in on the current design I'm feeling more comfortable in achieving good

The mouth of the clam represents the component that provides the direct clamping pressure on your project piece. Start by dimensioning two pieces that are roughly 4” x 4” x 2” to serve as the mouth of the clam. Where you want to join the mouth with the jaws of the clam you’ll need to make a rabbet cut. I typically cut this about 1/2” deep and 1.5” wide. Cutting the Rabbet left: starting to cut the rabbet; right: completing the cuts for both halves of the mouth There are a num

Note : One aspect of the build I don't plan to document in here is the creation of the form I use to bend the jaws of my clams, simply because I don't plan to create a new form anytime soon. However, this step is not overly complicated. My bending form is constructed from MDF. The desired curvature was sketched out and transferred to the form material, Enough pieces were cut to give the desired width that the form could accommodate. My form is about 4.5 inches wide. If I can

My first clam back in 2018 / 2019: Zebrawood jaws with maple mouth and a walnut leg I've been making stitching clams on and off now for seven years. Over this time my process has evolved to accommodate new features and to streamline the construction process. Despite this, I've never done a great job documenting, even for myself, my build process. This tends to result in some re-work during each build as I re-solution old problems. With all of that in mind, one of my goals wit