Bob Johnson2
12-14-2005, 12:42 PM
Hi All
Wondering if someone can give me a couple pointers for cutting dovetails. I've been using my Marples bench chisels this week while attempting to learn to to dovetails, while they work well enough they get dull in no time. Are these just cheap steel or the wrong type of chisel altogether. I have them at 25 degrees (is there a keyboard character for a degree symbol?) not counting the micro bevel. I do strop them often which helps a bit. Cutting 1/2 BB plywood so I imagine that has something to do with it. Would firmer chisels do the trick (been looking at the Hirsh set from LV) or is there a "standard" for dovetails?
In reference to the images below, Is there a formula or a trick of some sort to know if you should increase the number of tails and pins as you increase in drawer size? the drawers below are 3", 4", 5", and 6". Other then changing from 2 to 3 sets of tail/pins when I went from 3" to 4" I stayed with 3 sets and just increased the size of the tails.
Thanks
Wondering if someone can give me a couple pointers for cutting dovetails. I've been using my Marples bench chisels this week while attempting to learn to to dovetails, while they work well enough they get dull in no time. Are these just cheap steel or the wrong type of chisel altogether. I have them at 25 degrees (is there a keyboard character for a degree symbol?) not counting the micro bevel. I do strop them often which helps a bit. Cutting 1/2 BB plywood so I imagine that has something to do with it. Would firmer chisels do the trick (been looking at the Hirsh set from LV) or is there a "standard" for dovetails?
In reference to the images below, Is there a formula or a trick of some sort to know if you should increase the number of tails and pins as you increase in drawer size? the drawers below are 3", 4", 5", and 6". Other then changing from 2 to 3 sets of tail/pins when I went from 3" to 4" I stayed with 3 sets and just increased the size of the tails.
Thanks