Practice Makes Perfect

excellent.
I think you stated in a comment once that you should just sit and practice, practice, practice.. making tons of dovetails, just make them over and over again until it becomes “easy”.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Morning Don,
That is probably a trip down memory lane for many of us. I know that I don’t use hand cuts often enough to keep my hand in. The machines have made it too easy to get decent looking results. There was a time in my life when practice was very important to me becasue my life depended on it. A wise trainer told me this; ” Practice will not make perfect, only PERFECT PRACTICE makes perfect.” In other words you must pratice correctly to perfect a skill. Good blog.
Tom

-- Thos. Angle, Owyhee Design, Oregon

Hi Don,

Thanks for the great photos. Due to the fact that there is no audio, we didn’t get the chance to hear some of the cussing.

Like many of us, I also spent some time learning how to cut dovetails by hand. And finally, after a number of strange mistakes, and then some less strange mistakes, I finally got a set of tails and pins that looked like they had something to do with each other. I’m sure some of my early pencil lines moved by themselves. Also, during some of my early attempts, the pins seemed to change sizes (sometimes dramatically) after I cut them.

The learning experience convinced me of the value of dovetail/router jigs. All of a sudden, they didn’t seem quite as expensive. Yet every now and then, even using the jig, I’m sure the router bit somehow changes sizes all by itself in the middle of the procedure.

Hmmm ?! Must have a gremlin or two in my shop.

-- Bob

Hi Don;

Been there!

Tom’s comments about “perfect practice makes perfect”, is one I haven’t heard before, but I’ve witnessed it many times.

When I’ve made suggestion to older fella’s often the comment will be something like,” listen sonny, I’ ve been doing this for thirty years”.

My response is usually along the lines of : “don’t you think it’s time to start doing it right”? That’s if I like the guy.!

Lee

-- by Lee A. Jesberger http://www.prowoodworkingtips.com http://www.ezee-feed.com

Nice Don. I spent hours and hours struggling with handcut through dovetails using some crappy finger jointed pine. I just about gave up until I tried with some walnut and maple scraps. The biggest obstacle that I thought I had to overcome was the shoulder cuts…I wrecked more test cuts cutting a crappy shoulder. Then, well, I got better.

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Don! That last one was definitely a keeper!

-- Jesus is Lord!

I Love Lee’s comment about “don’t you think it’s time to start doing it right?” And the dovetails are very nice.

-- http://ye-olde-cabinet-shoppe.com/

I’ve not tried one, but I was at a wood show and Frank Klaus was demonstration how to cut them. My son David was helping him.

When he was don then Frank autographed it for him. He promptly got home and colored it all with green magic markers.

So much for memories.

-- Karson Southern Delaware karson_morrison@bigfoot.com

Just like home made cookies…even the bad ones are good.

-- http://www.woodsongsfurniture.com