# Indian Blanket Instructions



## workinforwood

Per popular request...how to make an indian blanket.  This is part one..stay tuned for more.

Require one stick of wood, 1.5 wide, 7/8 or more thick and 12" long would suffice, for the main body of the pen.

Requires same basic measurements for the blanket.

Take both pieces and rip 2 strips 1/8 wide off the sides using a thin kerf blade.  You will be left with 2 boards now that are slightly over 1" wide by 7/8 or more thick.  Run these strips through the drum sander to remove saw marks.  If you don't have a drum sander, say a prayer and use a strong epoxy in your glue up stage.

Using chop saw, chop the main body board at 22.5 degrees about 2" from the end.  rotate the board, move back about 3 inches and chop again.  Now you are left with 3 pieces.  The long excess piece will also be for the lower body of the pen.  Take the wide board for the blanket and cut two triangles at the same angle.  The triangles must come to an exact point.  It is ok if the triangles end up losing some width.  Now take the strips and make them into a bundle.  Cut the strips on edge at 22.5 degrees to be around 1.25 long or longer is ok.  Assemble all the pieces as shown in the photos..dry test fit.

Using some wax paper and a straight board, glue all the pieces together.  In my pic, I'm doing 2 blankets at a time, and I will auction one off for IAP charity.  I am simply using wood glue.  I rub and rub the glue until it sucks the pieces together, then on to the next piece, continuously checking that all the pieces are flush into the straight edge.  Be sure and push the point of the triangle piece tight against the straight edge.  Keep checking as you go, then when it's all glued and you are satisfied, let sit for 24hrs.

To be continued is a few days....good luck, you can do it!


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## workinforwood

If you want your blanket to work out, follow the instructions closely, don't take shortcuts.

Build a sled, basically just a 3" wide by 14" long board parallel both sides of course with a little piece tacked to the end that protrudes to act as a push stick.

Take your dry blanks, knock off any bumps of glue with your pocket knife.  Shave them clean and re-squared on the table saw, removing as little material as possible, but cleaning them up.

Set the thin kerf blade 1/16, or preferably a hair closer, from the edge of the sled.  Place the blank triangles facing the fence and rip it into strips. Remember, each strip is actually 2 strips.  If you rip 4 strips it is actually 8.  if each strip is 1/16 that adds up to 1/8, so 4 strips is around a 1/2 inch!  so try and get the strips to be thinner than 1/16 even if it's just a hair thinner.  You don't want the total number of strips to be wider than the tube you will be using and if they are wider, than only by a teeny bit!  You don't want the length of the blanket to exceed 1 3/4 long either, so watch that too, because you want a bit of solid wood above and below it on the blank too.

See here, 5 strips, that's for a fat pen like a gent style.  At my thumb I'll call that strip 1.  Take strip 2 and put it under strip one.  Then strip 3 under strip 2 and keep going.  Sort of like shuffling in reverse and you get your indian blanket half.

Line up the pieces so they match nice and lightly tape them together. Cut the pile in half.  Put the two piles together, lining up the two centers and tape.  Rip two 1/4 wide solid strips to go on the outsides of the blanket.  Tape those to the strips.  Go to the chop saw and slice the ends flush.  This is important!  Untape everything carefully not to break a piece.  Start gluing it all together with wood glue.  Place a clamp end to end.  Because all the pieces were cut flush, the clamp will hold your alignment for you. Then clamp the sides together and you are done!  You'll have to wait for it to dry, and clean it up, but basically, this is it. []  Thanks for the patience.


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## gketell

That is very very awesome.  Thank you for sharing that!!

GK


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## CSue

WOW!  Awesome.


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## Jim15

Thanks for sharing, Jeff.


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## Gary Max

Look like I need to get me a thin saw blade.


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