First Handcut dovetails

What kind of a saw and chisel did you use? I was thinking about picking up a 16tpi dovetail saw and giving the handcut dovetails a try myself. I don’t have a lot of money though. Anyone have any recommendations in the under $20 category?

-- Never pet a burning dog...

I could be wrong, but isn’t the grain orientation wrong? It looks like the pins and tails would snap off under pressure. I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than myself will be able to confirm this, and explain it better than me.

MUCH better than my first attempt!!

I found that for practice, softer woods (pine, poplar) are easier to work with, especially when using the chisel.

It’s not under $40 but if you haven’t tried a Japanese saw, “Doz…”- can’t remember how to spell it- it is much easier to use once you get over the mind set to pull and not push.

Lew

I used a gents saw for cutting these dovetails which i don’t think is ideal but worked for me.

Woody.

-- Woody, UK

a gents saw is good woodyone because if you get a small triangular file you can sharpen it up and then use a water stone to even up the kerf and it will perform much better. thats a really good first attempt at dovetails. i think its better than my first time too!

Hesed, You are correct about the grain orientation and that the way he has it would be a weak in certain circumstances. But irrelevant to this situation.
Woody, like everything practice makes perfect. I am sure it won’t take you long to post a perfect one for all of us to enjoy. I look forward to it.

-- ~ Inspiring those who inspire me ~

Are you sure this was your first try?

Very impressive! I had spent a great deal of time learning this skill, I had a great deal of difficulty to finally achieve acceptable results, still far from perfect. Practice on hard wood will, as you did, force both saw and chisel to “make a deliberate cut”. I don’t know how else to describe this. Soft woods tend to squish or get mushy. Hard woods allow the crisp or well defined pin/tail(like yours) one expects from a fine craftsman. I also found a deep deep scribe line help the saw and chisels start off true and less prone to wander.

-- Ciao, gth.

I would second gusthehonky opinion about not practicing dove tails in pine. Chiseling with even the sharpest one I had squished the fibers and I nearly abandoned the idea. For practice I would recommend Poplar and oak.

-- Praki, Aspiring Woodworker

Woody, very good for a first attempt. As others have said above, you’ll definitely want to orient the grain so the pins/tails are cut into the end grain…not only for strength, but since the end grain takes more of your stain or finish it shows more contrast, thus showing off your hand joinery better.

As you practice more, you’ll be able to keep your saw line a little straighter…some of the cuts on the pins look a little curved at the edges. Focus on moving your elbow, wrist and hand straight through the cut (both on the push and pull strokes) on one plane of motion. That should help tighten up the gaps a little.

There are different thoughts on this, but another way to help eliminate the gaps is to always take your saw kerf on the waste side of the cut. Some say try to split your marked line with the saw kerf, but for me that seems to still leave gaps.

I also agree don’t use softwoods for practice. In fact, even poplar tends to be a little soft. I’d stick with oak for practice. Also for hardwood your angle of dovetail looks a little steep more like 1:6 rather than 1:8. Using 1:8 will help prevent breaking of the edges of tails once you orient the grain to run into the joinery rather than perpendicular to it. This is subjective, but I think 1:8 is more appealing too.

Good luck with your practice…and have fun.

-- Martin, Kansas

A far cry better than my first attempt which could be descibed as large gaps with a small dovetail filler. Lost my scribe for 2 days in one of the gaps.

-- I can so I wood but why are my learning curves always circles