my first dovetail!

[Mark Kosmowski]

Here's my very first handsawn dovetail! Still a little tight, but it is late and I am done for the night.

147019

[Tri Hoang]

It's a good start...I'm sure you'll get the hang of it by the 10th. It's all in the marking/sawing.

[Don Dorn]

Good for you - posting a picture that looks like the first for many of us, including myself. Lately, it seems that there are allot of perfect dovetails that are posted as the first. If true, they certainly made mine look primitive.

You are getting it - just practice cutting straight lines and cut to the waste side. Frank Klausz once said - start with four 8' pieces of lumber and begin practice. By the time you get it down, you'll have a nice little box for your shoe polish. Keep it up - you've got this on the run!

[Eric Brown]

One suggestion, get some hard wood, such as poplar (not maple or cherry)and you will find having a straight grain aids in your practice cuts.

It looks like your off to a good start, just keep at it.

Eric

[Rick Erickson]

Mark, back off on your angles a bit. This will make it easier to cut. A 1:6 or 1:7 are good numbers. I also agree on the Poplar comment. Very soft woods (pine, etc.) are actually more difficult to chisel (unless you have a super sharp chisel).

[mike holden]

Mark,
Looks great for a first attempt!
As my teacher told me (often) - You will never be worse than you are now!

(Think about it, it is actually praise)
Mike

[Tony Shea]

Yes that is nice to see someone that posts their first real attempts. You'll get it soon enough. I also agree about the angles you're using, way too steep. As someone else said use a 1:6 or 1:7 angle which should be much easier to saw. Such a hard angle can make sawing to the line more difficult especially when first learning to saw to dovetail line. You're one the right track though.

[Mark Kosmowski]

I need to make myself a sliding bevel tool. I used the 45 degree on my adjustable square. Thanks for the words of encouragement!

[Steve Dallas]

Here's my very first handsawn dovetail! Still a little tight, but it is late and I am done for the night.

147019

Use better practice wood. Also, the angle you've used is much too severe.

You don't need to make a sliding bevel - go buy one. A cheap one from the 'Borg will work just fine if cost is an issue. I think toolmaking would call on a set of skills you may not possess at this point. Get some furniture under your belt first.

Most beginners jab with the saw instead of taking the full, long strokes it requires to cut a consistent face from the top to the bottom of the joint. There is no advantage to using a saw with teeth too small and no advantage in using a saw that requires thirty strokes to make a 3/4" long cut. The quicker the better. For the scale practice joint in your photo I'd use a 14" tenon saw if not an 18" 10 pt. bowsaw. It would take maybe five full strokes to saw each face.

[John A. Callaway]

this is very slippery slope, for me at least.... I have cut 14 practice sets of DTs so far, ...some of the first, not so great... some of the better ones... still not so great... but the last set I cut a few days ago... well I am proud of them.

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=132990

the whole story is in there.... and some great discussion on my mistakes, as well as common mistakes that most people make. One thing is for sure, there are a lot of guys on here that will be glad to help you out with any questions you may have...

try to get a better wood than pine. It gave me the biggest fit. Oak is probably a little too tough to start with. Poplar or aspen is a great wood to learn on. I picked up a piece of walnut and got some great results.

The biggest thing is to watch every step of the process, especially the sawing. Try to make a good clean cut all the way down and across....

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j87/trainman0978/DSCN2220.jpg

[Dan Andrews]

My first dovetails were in pine and didn't look nearly as good as Mark's. I dropped the excersise for a while and last summer made a dovetail drawer out of poplar. I also tried to pay much more attention to detail as I worked. These dovetails were a lot easier to make and fit a lot better (with much need for improvement) than the ones in pine. It realy is quite a challenge for we beginners to get that no-gap fit.