Evaluate my dovetails

[Jay Aubuchon]

I have a project in mind that will require me to hand-cut dovetails, which I have not done before. I have been practicing using the Veritas dovetail saw guide system. I'd like some perspective on my best effort so far. Note that these are just loose, dry fit. I know that clamps will pull them together a bit.

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Are these good enough for use where they will show? Or do I need a lot more practice? I'm okay with practicing more, but I don't want to be chasing an unrealistic standard.

For comparison, here is my first attempt.

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[Scott Winners]

One thing I try to do is not strike a knife line all the way across the face of each board. next time I try dovetailing I will try the blue tape method Derek espouses here and at in the woodshop dot com.

For never having fone it before those look just fine and dandy, much better than my first attempts.

[Daniel Culotta]

Those look great and will come out super tight with glue and clamps. Go for it!

[Jay Aubuchon]

next time I try dovetailing I will try the blue tape method Derek espouses here and at in the woodshop dot com.

Ha! I just did some reading on Derek's site and thought the same thing. Many other hints from him to refine my approach. Lots to learn.

[Tim Best]

Hi Jay,

I have fallen in love with traditional joinery, especially dovetails. I am not even a rank novice so I will not begin to evaluate your dovetails. I will state the obvious: Your second set looks better than your first so you obviously paid attention and tweaked your technique to produce better results. I suspect your third set will be even better.

Are they good enough for show? I guess that depends on you. If your DT’s are not executed to a Derek Cohen, Mike Allen, or Phil Mueller (to name only a few with no slight intended to the 100s of other great wood workers on this site) level of precision, can you be happy with the results?

Questions I ask myself on my current (and first real) project:

Are they perfect? (Answer is always a resounding NO.)
Are these better than my last attempt. (Almost always yes)
Is the resulting product square? (If not, then try to figure out where things went sideways and either correct or start over.) At this point in my journey, passable, square, and snug are at least as important as “pretty.”

Just thoughts from a fellow traveler.

[Jim Koepke]

Dovetails always look worst to the one who cut them.

Yours are fine for just getting started on cutting them.

One of my tricks is to cut the ones that won't show first. Mine always seem to improve with practice.

Yours look a little better than my latest project, Oh No Mr Bill!!! Another Box.

jtk

[Mark Rainey]

Jay, your dovetails are excellent. Move forward with your project. There is no benefit to "practicing" any more. If you have any small gaps that you think look less than perfect, you can cover them up at the end of the project with thin wood shims and sawdust. And they will look absolutely perfect.

[Andrew Hughes]

I think the fit looks good. It’s the size that needs refinement the pins are too thick it makes them look heavy.
Good luck

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Very nice on the latest set. Your first set, well, I think that even those could probably be stable for a work box and if you wanted to make them look better you could probably fill the gaps. Your first set looks a lot nicer than my first set. I am always happy when my sets look as nice as your last set.

Pretty big improvement between the two.

[Frederick Skelly]

Jay,
I agree with the others that these are a good start! Why dont you glue them up and see if you like the result once they dry?

My goal is a gapless fit even without glue. After more than 100 sets of DTs, I still have a bad pair occasionally. But it's an achievable goal with practice - Derek does it consistently.

Fred

[Jay Aubuchon]

Thanks all. That was exactly the feedback I needed.