Planing dovetails

[Roy Lindberry]

I'm working on my first actual box with dovetails, and have run into a problem planing them flush and planing out the scribe line. How do you keep from chipping out the end grain of the back dovetails? Given that the grain of the side dictates your planing direction, it doesn't seem feasible to plane from each end into the middle.

All of my practice dovetails have been single joints, so this has never been an issue for me. Should I slightly chamfer the back edge? Or is there something I'm missing?

[Jim Matthews]

I bevel the exposed side of the dovetail just down to the scribe line.

I use a low angle block plane to pare the dovetail, toward the inside of the box or drawer.

If the shaving is fine, and the plane is skewed, you should not have chip out.

If you have a particularly sharp chisel that is wider than the dovetail you wish to trim, it could be used in a "swivel" motion to shear off the end grain.

[Jim Koepke]

I usually do not plane out the scribe lines. I will usually plane down the proud parts of dovetails by going in towards the center, usually just enough to cut off the proud tails or pins.

If you do want to remove the scribe lines, my suggestion is to do them with a pencil on the sides that will show. Less planing to remove a light pencil line than a scribed line.

jtk

[Russell Sansom]

I cut a line at the back of each pin with a knife or a chisel. It's usually feasible to keep cutting the line with a really sharp paring chisel, so I pare the back of the pin for 1/16" or so. It can't blow out in that case.
I'm usually totally in accord with Jim, but, personally, I find it difficult to cut a set of dovetails without a scribed line. There's the old, "only scribe where there will be a cut" trick but it is quite tedious. If the line needs to be removed, I plan to lose that much thickness when the time comes to remove it.

[Terry Beadle]

The number one rule I use it to always plane towards the center of the drawer/box from the end. If the side of the drawer/box makes this near to impossible, then use a well sharpened paring chisel to work the pin ends flush with the tails. If the tails are proud and the pins recessed ( not a good layout result IMO ), then use a card scraper after using a paring chisel from the side of the tail and not into the grain end.

A low angle block plane or a LN LAJack will do the job the best.

Regarding the marking lines of the dove tail, most folks don't remove them as they are part of the charm/tradition of the hand cut dove tails. Some customers don't understand that. If they seem reluctant to the marks, a card scraper will take them off toot sweet.

[greg Forster]

Buy Rob Millard's DVD- "Making a Federal Period Inlaid Drawer". He shows many of the issues that concern you.

[James White]

I have been following Rob Cosman's technique of fitting the drawer front tight. Then planing the sides of the drawer so there is little to no side movement of the drawer. It would seem that you guys are not doing this. So how much of a gap do you leave when sizing your drawer fronts. Some of the drawer sides (oak) that I have been using do not lend them selves to planing. Being that the grain switches direction.

James

[Andrew Gibson]

I trim my pins and tails flush with my low angle block and or a chisel. Then I smooth the sides and remove the scribe lines with a sharp smoother. I have been working mostly in Cherry recently so that may have something to do with it, but I have not had any issues with tearing out the end grain once I have it flush. On some boxes I leave the scribe lines, but I always end up giving the sides a pass with a smoother because i always get the wood dirty and have to clean it up.

I need to learn to work and not let my hands get the work pieces dirty.

[john brenton]

Some recommend setting your marking gauge a hair short when you mark your pin depth instead of "right on the money", so that when you plane you aren't working through so much end grain. As long as your pin boards are the official length of the piece you won't hurt the fit of the drawer/box when you plane down the tail boards.

I was wondering about the scribe line. I, probably like everyone else here, open up the drawers on old furniture and check out the joinery there. I don't know that I've ever seen a visible scribe line on hand cut pieces in old furniture. Yet, in all the magazines and articles there's a always a big ol deep scribe line on the finished piece. I'm not sure if I just never notices it on the antiques, or if scribe lines are "in vogue".

[David Weaver]

I trim my pins and tails flush with my low angle block and or a chisel. Then I smooth the sides and remove the scribe lines with a sharp smoother. I have been working mostly in Cherry recently so that may have something to do with it, but I have not had any issues with tearing out the end grain once I have it flush. On some boxes I leave the scribe lines, but I always end up giving the sides a pass with a smoother because i always get the wood dirty and have to clean it up.

I need to learn to work and not let my hands get the work pieces dirty.

good luck with that, especially if the dirt is sharpening smudge. I guess you could sharpen with rubber gloves when you're smoothing - like some of the knife fanatics do (though they do it for grit contamination reasons).

[john brenton]

Dirty hands stinks, especially in the summer down here int he south where you're dropping buckets of sweat. Gojo is the bomb. I'd like to put a small sink in my garage too, I just never got around to it.

[Jon van der Linden]

If you dimension your drawer fronts and backs to the opening, then you don't want to touch them afterwards, and as a consequence won't be planing end grain. The sides will then start out slightly proud and will be planed down to the front and back.

This is essentially what John said, but here you're starting with a "fixed" dimension, which are the front and back of the drawer which have already been fitted.

[Chris Griggs]

Dirty hands stinks, especially in the summer down here int he south where you're dropping buckets of sweat. Gojo is the bomb. I'd like to put a small sink in my garage too, I just never got around to it.

Of topic I know but...

Man! Down here in New Orleans, I sweat all over my work in the summer. It stains the heck out of my projects and my saw handles, especially when it mixes with the metal particles and oil on my hands and freshly sharpened blades. I had to rebuild several pieces of a project I made last summer because I kept staining them and planing them down, so they no longer fit as intended. HUGE PITA!