Step Four: Square One Edge to the Newly Flattened Face

To do this you can lay the face side down on a shooting board on the bench and use a bench plane to square up one edge to the flattened face. I prefer to hold the newly flattened face to the fence on my jointer (set at 90 degrees of course) and run the edge through until it is flat and at a perfect right angle to the face I milled earlier. Now you have a piece that is even closer to the finished size you want, that is perfectly flat on one face, with one edge milled that is flat and square to the flat face.

At this time it is important to take a few seconds to reinstall your marks on these faces. They are your face side and edge that are used as your reference side and edge for all further measuring and layout. Once the board is all milled you won't be able to tell which were the original face side and edge. I have heard them called square marks or datum marks, but whatever terminology you use you should add them now. Here are what mine look like.

Our sample stock is held, face side against the jointer fence, and repeated passes are made until we have an edge that is perfectly flat. If our jointer fence was square to the tables (and I usually check this at the start of every project) we now have one face and one edge that are each perfectly flat, and they are perfectly square to each other. This corner, bound by the face side and face edge, will become our set of reference surfaces for all further layout and milling.