puzzling dovetail

I’m pretty sure I saw this on a workbench that roy underhill mad. I can’t for the life of me recall how it slid together though. That or I’m completely mistaken.

Wa?

-- The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them

wow!

I love puzzle joints :) I know how it’s done, but super cool.

-- I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso

I saw on woodwrights too, very cool.

-- Bill from Lithia Springs, GA I love the smell of sawdust in the morning.

hmm… no idea.

-- Woody, UK

Hmmmmmm, what lurks behind the shoulder cut?

-- Never pet a burning dog...

I thought I knew, but looking at it, i’m not so sure. I love this sort of stuff

-- I am always doing what I cannot do yet, in order to learn how to do it. - Pablo Picasso -- http://snbcreative.wordpress.com/

The back side of the dovetail is sloped. =)

It slides up into place.

Neat stuff. Keeps one on his toes. It is similar to those optical illusions based on what the mind is used to interpreting, e.g. Ames Room. We are used to thinking of the third dimension of a dovetail as having simple, extruded depth—as opposed to having a full third dimension. ;-)

I remember seeing a plan for a mallet using this technique to join the handle to the mallet.

-- If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, who will cut it up into bowl blanks?

I could not resist. Notice that the bottom face of the dovetail is actually a rectangle.

-- If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, who will cut it up into bowl blanks?