Blood, Sweat, and Sawdust

Yesterday, I started work on my bench hook. I am borrowing from a design used by Bad Axe Tools. The fence and hook are made from 1 1/2″ square stock and mate to the work using a bullet-proof dado joint. The entire thing will be 6″ wide by 10 1/2″ long. I am using hickory because it’s dense, and I had stock on hand. I found squaring up the fence and hook to be a real challenge due to the short length. I ended up doing a lot of the work with my block plane, because I found it too difficult to balance my bench planes on the stock. I thicknessed and planed to width using an old Dunlap no. 4. This plane worked remarkably well. Does anyone have any tips for squaring up short stock?

All squared up.

Here’s a friendly reminder to take care when using your marking tools.