How To Round Wood Corners By Hand

The beginning of woodworking can be a bit tough for woodworkers since they are likely to not own advanced power operated tools. Whenever they look around and see people shaping woods with ease, their will to become expert increases.

If you are one of them, then we would advise you to start with the basics. If you don’t even have advanced tools, then make sure to grab basic hand tools.

Here, we will instruct you how to round wood corners by hand so you can follow the steps and give a beautiful shape to any of the board or kitchen countertop maybe?

We have tried to keep it as simple as you hope it to be.

Step 1: Tools and Materials

To round the corners perfectly and that too by hand, you will just need a couple of tools. Grab them out!

Any curved template or protractor
Crosscut saw or carving knife or any proper cutting tool
Wood board
File
Pencil
Sandpaper

Step 2: Draw the outline

Kick-start by drawing your preferred corner shape on the wood board with a pencil. You can use a protractor or any curved template having a round edge for the job. Position the either on the corner area of the board and outline the shape with a pencil.

Step 3: Remove the extras

Next, remove the bulk of waste materials with a crosscut saw. You need to do the job by eye.

It actually depends on the overall size of the radius to determine how much saw cuts you need to make before you move on. You can also use a carving knife to do the job, albeit it may take a bit longer time.

Meanwhile, if you think you will round the corners in a small radius, then you can eliminate the saw tool and opt for a paring chisel.

However, a few cuts will help establish a rough shape of the corner. The roundness will still be imperfect.

Step 4: Refine the curve

Once you are done cutting the corner in a roughly rounded shape with the saw, next you need to do is to refine the curve with a bench chisel. Make sure that the bench chisel is sharp enough to do the job.

Place the sharp part on the board and wrap your fingers around the other end of the chisel. Next, use your force to push the chisel down through the end grain.

Make sure to avoid heavy passes!

Multiple light passes would not only help round the corners clean but also reduce the chance of hurting the workpiece and yourself.

(Note: You can also make a scrap wood piece and practice rounding the corners with a chisel. This will enable you to be a pro)

Step 5: Final touch up!

Now you will need a good metal file to smoothen the area unless you have achieved the desired radius. Continue filing until you are satisfied with the result.

However, the type of wood also should be taken into consideration when it comes to the final touch up. If the material is different, then you may want to use other tools for the job.

Lastly, you can use blocked sandpaper to give the rounded corners a smoother finish.

Tips

You can finish rounding the wood corners with minimal care. We would recommend you to not get frustrated thinking if all the corners have got a perfectly round shape. The practice will make you enrich your skills and ability. So, keep on practicing.

Different hand tools for shaping wood

Chisel (Paring):

A chisel can help cut a shape like a curved corner into a piece of timber. If the chisel is properly sharpened, paring wood with the tool will be an easy job.

The best way to use a chisel properly would be to work gradually with it. Instead of trying to gouge off big chunks of the waste project with every pass, try to take fine shavings. Keep on shaving the wood unless you smoothen the curve.

Rasp:

The rasp is often confused with its metalworking counterpart the file. However, the rasp is designed to be used as sandpaper. The tool should be used to give a finishing touch to the wood rather than using it for cutting shapes and carving wood.

The rasp helps even out and smoothens a cut edge. Not only that, but it also helps create small curved corners. So, if you want to get a shallow curve in the wood , this makes an ideal pick

However, if you plan to create a concave shape into the wood piece, then it will be great to either uses a round or a half-round rasp and then use the rounded part of the blade.

The wise thing you can do is to alternate the side you’re working from. This will let you form the shape and keep it from cracking the wood edge.

Surform:

A surform can be an amazing tool to create long curves or to bevel the edge of a wood piece. It is used just like a rasp.

You can grab the tool with cylindrical, curved, or flat blades. Each of the blades is utilized for different purposed.

Flat blade makes an ideal choice for trimming work. Cylindrical blades are ideal for creating holes in timber or giving shape to tight curves. And Curved blade is used to shape concave curves.

Plane:

A plane is one of the best hand tools for shaving a small amount from the edge of the wood piece.

However, you need to makes sure that you set the plane up properly and check the sharpness of the blade for getting the desired result. For this, inspect the plane’s soleplate. And check if the blade is accurately square to it.

If it isn’t, then you can adjust the screw behind the blade and fine-tune it.

Make sure that the blade does not project over a couple of millimeters from the sole plate’s face. You can adjust it with the second screw between the handle and blade for your help.