Planing a sliding dovetail

[Derek Cohen]

I was chatting to Terry Gordon at the recent Perth Woodshow. He was demonstrating how he used a dado plane along with a Snipe Bill to create a female sliding dovetail. This looked very slow going to me.


Some years ago I built a plane to cut the male side of the joint.


http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/SlidingDovetailsByHand1_html_56fbdedd.jpg


The female side was sawn, a chisel used to roughly remove the waste, and a router plane cleaned up the remainder. There is a pictorial here:


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


The conversation with Terry re-kindled my interest in a plane to shape the female joint. I came away from the show with a purchase of a 1/2" dado plane (a review will come in a few months).


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/1.jpg


A week or so after the show, Giuliano (http://woodworkingbyhand2.blogspot.it/2012/08/a-female-for-dovetail-plane.html) posted his plane. This was a simple and excellent design, basically a dado plane. So rather than attempting to re-invent the wheel, I decided to make a version of this, which I gather is a design that goes back many years. Of course, I did want to stamp my own mark on the result, and decided that it also must fit in with the HNT Gordon dado plane.


This was completed today ...


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/2.jpg


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/3.jpg


The plane is 9 1/4" long and 3" high. It s 1/2" thick at the wide (upper) section, and a touch under 1/4" wide at the lower section. The reason for the ball handle is that the thin body is too uncomfortable to grip as is. The added handle makes it very comfortable to push.


The rear side ..


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/4.jpg


An integral part of the plane is the Jarrah guide. This is 24" long.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/5.jpg


The underside has 240 grit sandpaper attached as non-slip.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/6.jpg


One side is 90 degrees (for the dado plane) and the other has a 1:6 slope (for the dovetail plane).


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/7.jpg


The dovetail plane runs along the guide and planes at an angle. However, unlike a dado plane, the blade on the dovetail plane is angled so that the lower edge cuts parallel to the surface.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/8.jpg


Here are a few construction details:


The body ...


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/9.jpg


This is the main blade (on the left) with a double-sided nicker (on the right). Both are angled to fit the angled (1:6) sole.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/10.jpg


The lower edge of the depth stop is angled to run along the top of the guide.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/11.jpg


The basic method is shown here ..


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/12.jpg


I attempted two types of sliding dovetails for practice. The first was a half-dovetail. This has a taper on one side and is square on the other. It was made using the dovetail plane first, and then the dado plane.


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/13.jpg


The other was a basic parallel double sided dovetail - a tapered version is made the same way. Here I was checking for accuracy. This was the result of the first effort ..


http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a262/Derek50/Planes/Dovetail%20Plane%20-%20female/14.jpg


What do I think of the plane? Frankly, I am not sure whether I still prefer sawing/chiseling/routing. It's a new process and the set up is new. Time will tell.


Regards from Perth


Derek

[Ryan Baker]

Looks like a nice plane, Derek.

It's an interesting method. I never really thought about it much, but my impression of those dovetail planes was that they were essentially side rabbet planes with an angled bottom ... i.e. you would start with a dado, then use the plane to undercut in from the side. This method is more of a plow at an angle, followed by the dado as the second step. Do you find this process to have advantages over the other methods?

[Dhananjay Nayakankuppam]

An interesting idea but like you, I think the saw and chisel is probably faster and easier. Also, am I correct in understanding that any width greater than than twice the thickness of the blade would anyway require a chisel to clean out the waste between the plane cuts? The one nice thing about this method though is that it seems pretty much the only way to handle any boards/assemblies that are more than 8-10" wide (i.e., beyond the scope of a saw's sawing capacity). Cheers, DJ

[Jim Koepke]

Interesting stuff, thank Derek.

Now I just need to get busy and build some of your plane examples.

jtk

[Bill Rhodus]

Derek, STOP POSTING THESE THINGS! You are taking time away from my furniture building to make tools. Guess I will have to make one of these to go with the dovetail plane I made a couple of years ago (your design). The male dovetail plane has become my prefered manner to make male dovetails.

[Federico Mena Quintero]

Looks great! I wouldn't have imagined that the depth stop could be used as a side wall for the irons, too.

I *love* the bulbous handle. Looks quite comfortable for a thin plane.

[Matt Owen]

Derek,

What a good looking pair of planes! Looks like they work pretty well, too. Thanks for taking the time and effort to photograph and document the process. I certainly appreciate it and I would imagine most others do as well.

Matt

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks for the kind words.

This plane is a tricky little bugger to tune and get working correctly. Not quite as simple as it looks - we tend to omit the trials and tribulations (a few hours worth). So one may think that I should be converted and converting others to the method. But I cannot. This plane has a lot of promise, but I am still more comfortable at this stage with a saw and chisel. It just emphasises the point that one does best and fastest with whatever is familiar.

Regards from Perth

Derek