Dovetails

Look pretty clean. I’ve been told they get easier with time. Most of the videos take ten minutes so there’s your next challenge ;)

-- Wood is not velveeta

i work on hand cut dovetails whenever i get the chance. i’ve gotten it down to less than 5 minutes. my technique is getting better and still have lots of room for improvement.

Fred, cutting a dovetail is not like swimming or riding a bike, imo. If you do not cut them on a regular basis you get rusty. Anyway, practice, practice, practice…

-- I would drink a river of the kool aid before I took the smallest sip of the tea...

Nice job, I learned to cut dovetails by hand many many years ago,and you are correct, if enough time passes you lose your edge.

-- Martin ....always count the number of fingers you have before, and after using the saw.

need to learn dove tails .i be happy with learning them with a router .but would like to know hand cut ones too those look good to me

-- Jesus Is Alright with me

Very nice! I too have been on a mission to learn them myself. One question for you is on the use of plywood, Just curous if you got a clean cut with your saw? It looks super clean in the picture. Did you have any problems working with plywood?

-- Ty, Up in Washington

MVW, I only used plywood because I had so much scrap. Very good plywood from a hardwood store, not a big box store. It cuts and holds up better. I used a Shark saw (very thin, very sharp) and cut short of the scribe line with multiple kerfs. I then used my chisel to hog out the sockets using the 90 degree/92 degree method to maintain a very clean line for the socket bottom. I’m now ready to try walnut, maple, rosewood, etc. I have also found that if I was cutting dovetails frequently I would come up with some kind of jig to make the cutting and cleaning faster. I’ve tried dovetails on the tablesaw, bandsaw and router. I have more control over the process when I cut them by hand…just too slow. Anyway, good luck and keep me up to date on your progress. I’ll post more pics with better wood soon.
Don

-- I would drink a river of the kool aid before I took the smallest sip of the tea...

I started learning to cut dovetails by hand a few months ago. I wasn’t interested in spending tons of money on a fancy jig so I spent tons of money on fancy hand tools, it just seems more pure to cut them by hand. Anyway, practice makes all the difference. I just started using an actual marking gauge instead of a pencil and the scribe line itself has made a substantial difference in the accuracy of the cut. Is it really possible to get airtight dovetails or is that just what it looks like in all the magazines? I always seem to have some sort of tiny gap in there somewhere.

-- --Now we are surrounded sir. "Excellent private, now we can attack in any direction."

Is it really possible to get airtight dovetails or is that just what it looks like in all the magazines?

Yes it is possible, all you have to make sure is that you cut on the waste side of your scribe line. I think Schwarz has made a very good point, dovetails are not only a matter of sawing. You need the correct stance, so that you can build muscle memory and your arm moves as a straight pendulum all the time. Once you get this down dovetails become easy and air tight. As Franz Klaus one responded to a question of making dovetails, ” it is not the dovetail the problem it is that you cannot cut to a straight line. “

The neat thing is seeing the progress, with time your dovetails will look great and besides the satisfaction, there are a myriad of dovetail combinations that cannot be made with a jig.

-- Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.

Hey, DKV, I’m on a similar mission and your joints look much more advanced (better) than mine.

Way to go!

-- Mike from Lansdowne, PA

Certainly the cleanest cuts I’ve ever seen in plywood !
Speaking of ply , that looks like some very high quality plywood…I haven’t seen plys that uniform or solid in years.
Keep up the good work : )

-- When did quiet and quite become the same word ? I'm guessing about the same time as your and you're did.

Be proud. Dovetails are the mark of the true woodworker! Good discussion. The more mistakes the more we learn.

-- Cau Haus Designs, Thomas J. Tieffenbacher