Thickness the sides

20150526
I began to thickness the sides.
Originally I plan to braced up the top but due the recent wet weather I decided to postpone that step.
Thicknessing the sides is pretty straight forward, I did it with these planes:
- scrub plane - remove main bulk of material in chips
- #5 jack plane - to smoothen the ridges form by the scrub
- HA smooth woodie - to further smoothen the surface.
If I follow this scheme of removal the thicknessing is pretty straight forward.
But it still takes a great deal of effort.
I was left panting all the way.
Guess I am really out of shape ... haha.

Plane one edge straight first (top edge)

Scrape the outside face smooth

Planing starts...

Look at the amount of waste produced...

Sides thickenessed. You can really feel that it's very pliable. Now it's ready to be bent.

20150529
Final smoothening of the surface before bending using scraper.
Also to ensure both sides are same thickness at the same point.
This is especially crucial at the butt or end block region.

Final smoothening using scraper and also ensure the 2 sides are same thickness at the same region especially at the end block region.

20150705
The sides are saw to size.
Some binding can be made from the cut-off of the sides.

Cutting off some excess from the sides. It can be used as bindings.

Sawing off the excess