The first time I watched a carpenter scribe a countertop to
the inside corner of an irregular plaster wall, I was impressed.
With practice, I eventually got pretty good at scribing. But the
more things I built, the more jobs I encountered where standard
scribing techniques didn't work — situations like inside
treads on winding stairways and countertops in three-sided
alcoves with no backsplash (as with built-in desks).
In cases like these, many carpenters make either a wooden
frame or a plywood template in the exact size and shape of the
finished piece. I'm not a big fan of these
methods, both of which are time-consuming.
A wooden frame is flimsy,