Grip Small Workpieces for Planing Between Two Pairs of Wedges

The Problem

A small or thin workpiece has nothing to clamp. A vice grips it at one end and it chatters at the other. A bench dog holds it against a push but lets it skew. Clamps hold it well and sit exactly where the plane needs to go, so you spend the session moving them.

The Technique

The jig is four wedges and a strip of webbing, and it holds work by friction with nothing to tighten.

1. Cut two wedges and glue them to the benchtop in a shallow V, with the opening facing you and the narrow end away from you. The gap between them at the narrow end should be a little less than the width of the work you plane most.
2. Cut two more wedges, thinner than the first pair, with the same taper.
3. Join the thin pair at their wide ends with a short strip of webbing, leaving a gap between them. The webbing keeps them together as one unit and stops them dropping off the bench when the work comes out.
4. Drop the thin pair inside the fixed pair, tapers matching.
5. Slide the workpiece into the pocket between the two thin wedges and push it away from you until it snugs.

Plane away from yourself. Each stroke pushes the work deeper into the taper, which drives the thin wedges outward against the fixed ones and tightens the grip.

To release, tap the workpiece back toward you. The wedges slacken and the work lifts straight out.