Hand Tools doings #13: Dovetails - I'm getting there --- still kind of ugly

They look right to me. Btw I think sin has you beat in the ugly dept. Most of us don’t show the early attempts and they usually are not pretty. That’s where repetition comes in for skill building.

You’ll be amazed how much easier it is to use sharp tools. I recommend you bite the bullet so to speak and learn to sharpen or get a good machine. You’ll like chisel work much better.

-- Greg, CT

Betsy they look just fine to me. You are making progress. It is slow but these are far better than your first post.

Practice, practice practice. :)

-- With God's help all things are possible- even woodworking. Woodworking is not just a hobby, it is an (expletive deleted) expensive hobby.

Getting better every time you try again. You’ll be a master pretty soon.

Try using a knife and straight edge to outline your cuts first.

And yes they are correct.

-- Gary, East TX -- The longest journey begins with a single step.

Betsy,
It is a great start and I think you should be proud. Some people never even finish their first attempt, rather giving up or only using router templates. I think that your biggest limitation right now is your tools. Work on getting them sharper so they cut cleaner and more accurately. It looks like you did a good layout job.
Take the knowledge you learned from this and go onto the next set. Put this one away and refer to it after the next one is done. You will see a marked improvemnet, I guarantee it! For variations on your layout, try this link… http://www.blocklayer.com/Woodjoints/DovetailEng.aspx

Your doing fine…

Tom

-- Anybody can become a woodworker, but only a Craftsman can hide his mistakes.

hand cut = tons of practice.

Good luck on your next attempt.

-- making sawdust....

Well the geometry is right. You have pins and tails. I don’t know what tools your using but I can honestly tell you that a properly tuned saw is a must. I highly recommend Rob Cosman’s DVD series. There is a bit of Lie-Nielsen advertising, but they put out the DVD so I can’t fault them too much for that. (and there saw is great)

Get a copy of the current Woodworking magazine; it is all about hand sawing. Also, read the woodworking magazine blog. Christopher Schwarz has ’s lots of great info there as well. http://www.woodworking-magazine.com/index.asp

I’m not anywhere close to a dovetail master but when I fist got my saw I marked straight lines every 1/4” or so. I cut half of them on the left and half of them on the right. There is no point trying to cut a joint until you can cut a straight line. I then cut a bunch of “5 minute dovetails”. One tail and two half pins. The advantage is that there is a lot less chopping so most of your time is spent cutting.

Tools for working wood has some coping saw blades that are very thin and will slide down the kerf left by most dovetail saws. It’s a little scary how much better they work than the big box blades.

Most important… Keep at it.

-- Che.

Do this everyday for 30 days and you’ll be an old pro at this. Good work so far.

-- Bob A in NJ

Whew! Thanks guys. I’m trying hard. The sharp tools are a problem. That’s what I’m working on now. Every time I hit the sharpening station I see where I’m missing the boat. But that’s getting better to. The Kelly Mehler class I’m taking next month should help in this department also.

I’m going to have to look into these links and that coping saw blade. The one I have is pretty large.

Thanks again guys. Will keep you posted!

-- Betsy - There is no strength where there is no struggle

ya everything looks right. you improve so much every time that you post your results. i wouldn’t doubt it if in another couple of tries your getting them almost flawless. keep up the great work!

Looking good. I see that your tails are a little short which would mean that you didn’t layout the lines perfectly, or that you didn’t cut to the line. If you didn’t put the lines in right the first time it is hard to make them look good. I think that if you arn’t useing a scribe to get one or make one like the project that I have posted in my projects. it was really simple to make and is very effective. I myself have the same problems of makeing my tools sharp enough and to make perfect dovetails, but I have amost lost hope, you are very determined, Practice makes perfect right. :) Good luck, and have fun.

-- Tyler, Illinois

Betsy

If you haven’t already seen Douglas Bordner’s blog of the Scary Sharp system, check this out

http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/Radish/blog/2588

-- Fred, Springfield, Ma

Thanks guys. I really appreciate the encouragement. Fred – I’ve seen Doug’s blog. It’s quite good. I have the veritas jig that he describes and it works great. I’ve tried the sandpaper and I’ve not been able to get far with it. Right now I’m trying to use waterstones as that is what will be taught at the woodworking class I’m taking in May. All in all though – I really need to learn to sharpen with one method or another or I’ll forever be having fuzzy, ugly dovetails. But I’m pretty persistent – I’ll keep at it.

-- Betsy - There is no strength where there is no struggle

Betsy – so far, so good! Geometry is right on the money -

I second Che’s idea of “the “5-minute dovetail... not quite as overwhelming when cutting one tail and two half pins at a time, and you can do one after the other for lots of practice if you wish. Or even cutting a three tail joint may allow more focus on getting the joint to come together even closer…

Keep it up!

There’s a little video link on the FWW page that’s linked above too…

-- Dorje (pronounced "door-jay"), Seattle, WA