A piece of rock or sugar maple was first squared up and laid out in pencil as shown at B. In order to get the outline to conform exactly to the drawing, the form was cut out of paper and traced on the face of the wood. The blank form was then whittled out to the pencil line, and sand-papered smooth as shown at c.
Maple proved to be a hard wood to whittle.
Notches were cut at d d after drawing the edge view on front and back edges. The blade and handle were then whittled down to lines e and f.
Fig. 79. Two designs for paper knives
"Whew!" exclaimed Harry, "don't ever give me any maple to whittle again."
"Well, you wanted to make a paper knife, didn't you? A paper knife that would break when it fell on the floor wouldn't be of much use, and you are not through yet. The blade must be cut down to a fairly sharp edge on both sides now."
This was done by bevelling the edges as shown in h and the bevel gradually cut back to the centre line, as shown at i and j. Harry concluded that this was the hardest work that he had ever done.