Chopping The Recesses — How To Make A Hanging Wall Shelf

You must chop the first wall of each recess down to depth. Begin by making a knifewall, using the knife nick you made previously as a start point. Remember to place your square so that your knife is on the waste side of the knifewall; i.e. over the recess. You can then go on to chop vertically on the bench top (only light chops at first) and pare the waste in the vise, until you reach the gauge line.

Make your first knifewall with a light pass, initially

Deepen the knifewall with another, heavier pass

Go back in the vise after every row of chops and pare down to the new depth

With your first wall cut to depth, bring in the board that will be housed and nudge it up tight against the first wall to close up any gaps. Then, keeping the board upright and steady, make a small knife nick on the opposite side to mark the position of the second wall. Ideally, you should apply a bit of lateral pressure as though you were trying to mark underneath the board.

Extend this knife nick to a knifewall across the face and proceed to chop the second wall as the first.

Note: Sometimes, as is the case here, the wall is so close to the end of the board that you cannot register your square so as to put the bruising of the knife on the waste wood. Instead, what you can do is to place the beam of the square over the recess (i.e. cut on the ‘wrong’ side), but only make a very superficial knifewall. Then, you can move the square away, and taking great care, go over the knifewall again a couple of times freehand, but this time angling the knife the other way so as to put the bruising on the waste wood.

Butt the side piece up against the first wall to mark the second with a small knife nick

Make your second knifewall with a very light pass

Move the square out of the way and carefully deepen the knifewall freehand

Chop the wall down to depth in the same way

Always go in the vise for safety to pare into the wall

Levelling the Bottom of the Recess

With both walls down to depth, you can now remove the remaining ridge along the centre of the recess and test the fit of your joint.

Clamp your board in the vise, with the open end of the recess towards you, and use a sharp chisel (narrower than the width of the recess) to pare the waste off in small bites, always shooting up as the cut extends with every bite you take. Make sure you don’t go below your depth line, since you’ll want refine the inner surface very accurately with a router plane. Be sure to clean out the end of the recess with a sharp chisel so that nothing is holding up the joint from seating.

Once the recess is trimmed and level, assemble the joint using a chisel hammer to make sure it fits well.

Take the top layer off with your chisel shooting upwards

Work along the recess checking that you don't go too deep

Go with your knife again if the walls aren't deep enough

Route the bottom of the recess for a uniform depth

Test each joint before moving on to the next

If you require a more detailed step-by-step guide on how to chop a Housing Dado, click here.