Fun With Dovetails

I think everyone’s first try at hand-cut dovetails looks the same! But it’s a great accomplishment to see those two pieces fit together to form such a great joint. Job well done.

What caused the chip-out or tear-out on the first two pictures? I see a couple gacks. Was that from chiseling from the opposite direction? Also, did you do pins first or tails first, and did you like doing it in that order?

To be honest, I kinda like when dovetails are of uneven size and distance. It really drives it home that “this wasn’t made with no jig!” The guy who taught me the rudiments of dovetails said not to even measure. He said, “Is it going to be uniform? No. Are you going to charge more because of it? Absolutely.” Now will that fly? Dunno…

-- Eric at http://adventuresinwoodworking.com

Chip-out was caused by not scoring the face grain deep enough I think. I sketched out and cut the tails first, trying to keep all my cuts on the waste side of the pencil. Once the tails were cut, I removed the waste by making rounds of scoring the face grain and chiseling down to the line. Once I finished the tails I put the pin board in the vice and laid out the pins using the tails as a guide… same process on these… cut down to the line, score the face, chisel out the waste. The joint was nice and tight(as you can see by the pin which has been pushed out and cracked the board… I kind of expected that to happen, I got the tails half down and couldn’t get the boards to separate for more trimming… that’s when I took out the persuader and asked the boards nicely to seat themselves…. :-) On the last picture the part that looks like a crack is actually a dark vain running through the grain.

-- Looking for free wood working plans? Visit us at www.AwlFreePlans.com

Hi Mark,

You are definitely making progress with these pictures. And with this technique practice will certainly improve your technique.

I too have recently (this week) started working on doing hand cut dovetails but if I posted my pictures it would be more a tutorial in how not to cut dovetails and would be more comical than helpful. As with any endeavor I believe that we learn far more from our mistakes than we do our successes. In the short time I have been practicing these I have learned a great deal. So now that I am making all the mistakes I am sure that you can make the successes- after all there has to be a balance.

Thanks for the post.

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

Good.

-- Jiri

Good start. There’s nothing better than getting that first foray into handwork down. Soon you’ll be sawing to the line and paring them up tight. Also, there’s an old adage about fitting of joints in woodwork that says you should be able to seat your workpieces together by hitting them with nothing more than your hat. They never mentioned what kind of hat, but you get the picture. For me the heel of my hand is what I use for small stuff and a few taps with a small dead-blow usually will seat parts together on the bigger stuff. That goes for mortise & tenons too.

However, I am working on my new bench base and the tenons for the bottom stretchers have to make it through several inches of material before they emerge out the other side, so yeah, I have to whack it pretty firmly with a large hard rubber mallet to drive them home. So I guess it’s all a matter of degree. It is up to you to find your way, grasshopper.

Good luck and happy tails… er uh… or is it trails… but where are the pins… hmmmm… Woodworking is so confusing. HA!

always,
J.C.

-- "Imagination is more important than knowledge" -- Albert Einstein

I’m impressed!!

-- ~ Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

Mark,

You might want to take a look at my blog entry on cutting dovetails ( http://lumberjocks.com/jocks/alindobra/blog/2755 ). It includes a 37 minute video with detailed explanations on how to cut dovetails precisely.

You still have to practice your dovetails but you are on your way.

Alin

-- -- Alin Dobra, Gainesville, Florida

Good job, for a start. mike

-- Mike. mwurm13@yahoo.com

For a first effort, they look pretty good!

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

Looks good to me!

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

Nice job for a first try…I’m too scared to even attempt it!

-- David, South Windsor, CT "I love the smell of sawdust in the morning"

Thank you all for your comments, it is greatly appreciated and definitely motivates me to continue. I’m sure I made my life harder by starting with red oak… but I figured the stiffness of a hardwood would help me get nice clean lines… and at the two big box stores my selection on hardwood is fairly limited. I have not yet gone to a hardwood dealer, although I’m sure with the casinos here, and multi-million dollar new construction homes, that there’s got to be a good one… But like I’m sure you all were, I am a little intimidated by going there for the first time.

-- Looking for free wood working plans? Visit us at www.AwlFreePlans.com

Better than my first- by a long shot.

Pitch looks good, I find mine get a little rough around the edges when my chisels are due for a quick trip down the 8000 stone.

-- The only easy wood project is a fire

you asignment, if you choose to take it, is to handcut, 150 dovetails and show us the last one

fun stuff … thanks for posting

-- work from your heart and your spirit will live forever

Way to go! I applaud you for not being afraid to show what you’re up to…the process is more important than the product. (Products are good too though!)

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

Next time you’re at the big box store, move to the next bin and grab some of that tulip poplar—it will cut clean, be easier chiseling, is less stringy, and cheaper!

Btw, just keep your chisels scary sharp and don’t worry too much about the saw (unless you just want to pay for a classic saw.) I’ve seen excellent dovetails cut with hacksaws.

-- There's no tool like an old tool...