My Own Road to Damascus #2: My first hand cut dovetail!

Thats your first dovetail?
MAN THATS GOOD.
My first dovetail has a socket too big and a tail the incorrect angle….

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That looks better than my first try. My next try will also be with a harder wood, but I need to sharpen some chisels again.

-- Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching.

They also become more fun

Great start, they tighten up with practice

jamie

-- Who is the happiest of men? He who values the merits of others, and in their pleasure takes joy, even as though 'twere his own. --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I used oak on my first set of dovetails, too. I ought to try my hand at it again now that I have a wheel marking gauge, should make things easier.

The one thing that jumps out to me is that you need to be careful about sawing inside the waste line that you mark out. Get as close as you comfortably can, but it’s alright to leave just a hairs width of material, you can always pare off the excess with a chisel and it makes for a cleaner surface than your saw will. It’s a lot easier to take tiny little shavings off one bit at a time and creep up on that final fit. Seeing the intersection up top in particular looks like you tried to saw along your marked out line rather than trying to saw around it.

From one newbie to another, you’ve got a good start. Keep it up.

-- Brian in Arlington, TX - Laziness is the foundation of efficiency.

That is good first attempt Kay. I’ve noticed that a number of people have done a similar thing to you i.e. deciding to cut a dovetail a day or whenever they get the time. I’ve often thought that maybe they are trying to run before they can walk. The key to cutting most hand cut joinery IMO is learning to saw accurately. Once you can precisely control where the saw goes, cutting joinery becomes a whole lot easier.

-- Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.

I think the easiest wood to dovetail stuff is Balsa

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Oh my. I thought oak was a good choice but after reading the comments above and Brian’s write-up maybe I should run down to my local big box and get a couple of pieces of poplar. I have some maple but since most of it is figured, I don’t want to use it for dovetail practice. :) How about cherry? Would that be a better learning ground than oak?

Andy – you are so right. I should be confident about cuting a straight true line with my saw before I jump into dovetails. But I am so very impatient! Perhaps I will get a larger piece of poplar and cut it down by hand. A bit of practice cutting at least.

I am awaiting my Badass hybrid cut 16” tenon saw, which I ordered back in April. I am going to have to drop Mark a line and see what is up with that! (I cannot remember how long the wait was supposed to be but I want my saw!) . I am absolutely certain that with a fancy new saw in my hand, my cuts will be straight and clean! Right?

-- Kay - Just a girl who loves wood.

Kookaburra, try Balsa :D

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Well if they’re not Kay, at least you can rule out the saw. LOL.

Just kidding. Having a decent saw is half the battle and you’ve bought one of the best. That will make the job of learning to saw properly a lot easier.

-- Andy -- Old Chinese proverb say: If you think something can't be done, don't interrupt man who is doing it.

Alexandre – balsa seems so very soft. You have not had problems with over-cutting? I do know i can pick up balsa pretty easily, so that aspect is a real plus.

-- Kay - Just a girl who loves wood.

Nice dovetail. Oak is not easy. The Japanese call them swallowtails.

-- Superdav "No matter where you go - there you are." http://chiselandforge.com

Yeah, balsa would be too soft, I think. Poplar is a good alternative. Not as squishy as balsa or pine, not as hard as oak. Much finer grain too, so it’s easy to pare with sharp chisels to make those fine adjustments. Mahogany would be a step up from that. Cherry is nice stuff, but I think it may be too high on the hardness scale for beginning attempts.

-- Brian in Arlington, TX - Laziness is the foundation of efficiency.

Kay, where do you live?
Which woodstore do you go to?
Seems like im pretty close…

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Alexendre – I live near Oberlin, Ohio, but I only moved here recently from Chicago. I still do all of my real wood shopping in Chicagoland – a place I know and trust – Owl Hardwood. I spend about half my time in Ohio, about half in Chicago and the rest traveling between the two :) For some reason I thought you were Canadian – but Canada is only about 10 miles from where I live! (although that international border is in the middle of Lake Erie)

AND I just got a note back from Mark at Badass – my saw is on the schedule for mid-August. Could I wait a month to cut anything? (I do have other saws – a small dovetail saw, a coping saw and a couple other big box cheapies)

-- Kay - Just a girl who loves wood.

LOL i am canadian.. I thought you lived in canada….

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