One thing more and then your horse is done; ready to stand if not to go.
Find the middle of one end of top board, draw a line three inches long down the board, with try-square. Then on the end measure one inch each side of this centre line. (See [fig. 4].) Draw line from a to b, and cut on lines with splitting-saw; this will leave a triangular space which you will find very useful by and by in cutting small pieces of wood.
From board A there ought to be left a piece about three and one half feet long, and from board B a piece about two feet long. These you will put aside for further use.
Now for the Bench (with a capital B, because it is the principal partner in the firm of Carpenter and Co.).
Buy three good two-inch pine planks. Say two planks ten feet long, one foot wide, and one eight feet long, six inches wide. Ready planed, at the sawmills around here, these cost about eight cents a foot; a little less unplaned. Besides these, you want one ten-foot inch board, one foot wide; this should cost about four cents a foot. Before you really start on your Bench, look around your workshop and decide where you will have it stand. There must be a space ten feet long against the wall, with plenty of light. A window at the left is the best.
One thing you must have which I didn’t reckon with the tools; but it is easy to prepare. I mean a chalk line. There are fancy ones, but the sort I’m going to describe does just as well.
Fig 4
Get a piece of curtain-cord twelve or fifteen feet long, and make a loop on one end; then provide yourself with a good piece of common chalk; when you want to use it, chalk the line well by passing the line over the chalk as you would wax thread; to use it put the loop over a nail at one end of the line you wish to chalk, hold the other taut, and snap the line smartly in the middle; it will leave a straight chalk line for a guide in cutting.