Sliding dovetails by hand?

[Ben Beckham]

How does one cut a sliding dovetail joint by hand?

I know there are dovetail planes (one by LV) that will make the male end of the joint, but how do you cut out the housing?

The only thing I can think of is to use a dado plane to form the center and then chisel out the rest. But that's gotta be more work than necessary to make this classic joint.

[Tony Shea]

I beleive Derek Cohen's site shows this procedure. http://www.inthewoodshop.com/index.html

This is a great site and shows a multitude of handtool operations, toolmaking, and tool reveiws. Derek is a regular member here and has been an incredible help to myself and many others.

[Jim Belair]

Use a saw against an angled fence, then chop out the middle.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Like Tony said, Derek's got you covered:

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/SlidingDovetailsbyhand1.html

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMadeTools/Evolving%20a%20Dovetail%20Plane.html

The second link details modifying an old wooden rabbet plane into one to cut the male part of the joint. The one time I've done a sliding dovetail, I just pared it, but I don't think I'd want to go that route with one of any length.

The key thing I've found is making the initial cuts for the female part of the joint is having a nice backsaw if that's what you're using. I had one with a subtle wave that never bothered me for tenon cheeks and the other types of things I cut, so I ignored it. It led to binding in these long joints where you're really cutting straight across and can't angle the blade at all. A mitre saw, like Derek shows, would probably be helpful. I think a stair saw would work well too. I ended up using a cheap pullsaw, and it worked well enough. the guide block really helps.

I believe there's a Woodwright's Shop episode (perhaps the dovetail details one from a few seasons ago?) where he details this joint as well. Those are free to watch on the PBS website.

[Richard Magbanua]

I did a post on sliding dovetails made by hand a while back. It turned out it wasn't as difficult to do as I thought. Now, the ones I did were only a few inches but I think this could work for longer ones as well. Derek's post is great and was very helpful when I was trying to figure this all out for myself.
I hope this helps...
http://richardmagbanua.blogspot.com/2009/12/stopped-sliding-dovetails-by-hand.html

[Alan Schwabacher]

Roy Underhill shows you how to cut sliding dovetails in episode 3008 "The Case for Books".

You can watch it here: http://www.pbs.org/woodwrightsshop/video/3000/3008.html

[James Owen]

Similar to some of the other posters, I use an angled saw guide (10˚ in my case, because it matches my dovetail plane) to cut the walls and chisel out the center waste. I then use a router plane to flatten the bottom of the dovetailed dado at a uniform depth. A few years back, I did eight 12" long sliding dovetails for a book case. The first one was rather slow, because I was figuring out how to do it; after that, they went pretty fast.

[Larry Heflin]

George Huron did an article in FWW #178 on hand cutting tapered sliding dovetails titled "Tapered Sliding Dovetails" that might have some information you can use.

Larry

[Russell Sansom]

Do a little reading and dive in. Make a few on an unimportant piece before going for museum quality. They take a little precision and neatness, but are generally pretty easy.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

FWIW, flipping through some books last night, I realized that vol. 1 of Tage Frid's book covers cutting stopped sliding dovetails by hand as well.

[john brenton]

I did a little something on it a while back here: http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?159968-Dovetail-plane&highlight=

It's not a master's guide to it as I'm just a hobbyist tinkerer, but it worked rather well and fast. For a longer joint, like a shelf bracket or something I would probably go with sawing the angle instead of chiseling it out, but for these short ones it was remarkably easy and accurate to do it this way.


How does one cut a sliding dovetail joint by hand?

I know there are dovetail planes (one by LV) that will make the male end of the joint, but how do you cut out the housing?

The only thing I can think of is to use a dado plane to form the center and then chisel out the rest. But that's gotta be more work than necessary to make this classic joint.

[Eric Brown]

If making a stopped sliding dovetail, chop out the stopped end with mortice chisels first so your saw has an opening to work to.

I use blue painters tape on a hand scraper blade to check the depth.

Also, it is a great time to explore tapered sliding dovetails. They are loose until they get tight.

Like others, I use a guide block and a backsaw. Chop out the waste and clean up with router. Not hard at all.

Eric