First hand cut dovetails

[Pat Zabrocki]

I work more with my "tailed" tools but I seem to have the hand tool bug. Thought I'd give dovetails by hand a try. Clearly, I'll need much more practice but its a start. I'm not sure where the term "wood butcher" came from but it was probably somebody that cuts dovetails like these :(

Cheers
Pat

[Mark Stutz]

Pat,
Most of us won't show our first ones. Look in the archives for "slatevod"...thats dovetails spelled backward, which is how mine turned out! Lots of threads with lots of tips, but I found that practicing a series of cuts, just cutting to a line, really helped. It also helps to glue them up and plane them fluch...sometimes they will look better than you think.

BTW, what kind of chisels are those?

Mark

[Pat Zabrocki]

Those are Lie-Nielsen chisels with cocobola handles. Thanks for the advice and encouragement. Chris Schwartz once suggested in an article to try and cut a set every night for 30 days. I'll have to adjust that for my funky travel schedule but something like that sounds like a good plan. Repetition, repetition, repetition.....

I'll send you a PM as soon as I can figure out when would be a good time but we'll have to arrange some shop visits. I've read a lot of your posts and its clear I could learn quite a bit from you.

[Mark Singer]

Pat,
Each set you do will improve...I would get a carvers mallet though

http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/2f/b4/pr-Shop_Tools-Marples_Carvers_Mallet_M204-resized200.jpg

[James Mittlefehldt]

Read a bit and then repetition, is what does it, yours really aren't all that bad and as Mark says planing them flush may improve then much more. Compared to the very first set I did yours are worthy of Duncan Phyfe, so carry on and welcome to the slope.

Regarding carvers mallets, I found one recently in an antique mall, a beautifully turned and ornate one for fifteen dollars, but the seller had no clue what it was, he/she had it under kitchen implements and called it a masher.

[Zahid Naqvi]

Hey they look better than my first DTs. As most people said its all about practice.

[Bob Oehler]

Hi There:
It looks like you stold my 1st dovetails from my shelf of firsts. :)

You are off to a wonderful start. Practice is the key and sawing to lines on a board is a great practice with out the laying out of the dovetails. cut to a line cut to a line over and over is how I got my sawing skills down.

Take Care and keep making wood chips.
Bob Oehler
;)

[Tim Dorcas]

Hi There:
It looks like you stold my 1st dovetails from my shelf of firsts. :)

You are off to a wonderful start. Practice is the key and sawing to lines on a board is a great practice with out the laying out of the dovetails. cut to a line cut to a line over and over is how I got my sawing skills down.

Take Care and keep making wood chips.
Bob Oehler
;)

Actually this is something I may start doing. I finally got all of the stuff I need to begin cutting dovetails. My first dovetails are horrible. Rob Cosman makes it look too easy! That said I have been practicing them every other day and hopefully they will get better soon.

[Jim Dunn]

I haven't done any yet but I can tell your's look better than my first one's will. I can envision my first dovetails as some kind of a cross between a crows foot and something else:)

Nice firsts.

[Andrew Williams]

If you get a chance, go to a real antique shop. The kind that don't have any reproductions and mainly carry affordable ordinary furniture that just happens to be 100 years old or more. Have a look at a bunch of drawers and see what was considered a passable dovetail back in the era when hand-cut dovetails were the norm. I am sure you would be very surprised at how loose and gappy and non-uniform they look in general. And also how well they have withstood 100 years of use and abuse.

My point is this: How do your dovetails work? Not how do they look.. The joint is supposed to be a mechanical locking joint in one particular direction, to hold a drawer together. And they are commonly not even viewed by most people. If you are going to make dovetailed carcases, that may be a bit different since they are on the show face of the piece, but by all means, don't knock yourself down for making a perfectly usable joint that just doesn't happen to (yet) look like it belongs in a WWing magazine article.

It doesn't take all that many dovetails before you figure out how to make them look pretty good. Keep practicing and by all means, make some boxes or drawers out of your DTs (don't just throw them away). Once you make a full box or drawer you will wonder what the big deal was all about.

While DTs are more in vogue right now I am most impressed by old hand-cut mortise and tenon frame and panel doors. Now that takes some practice!

[alan wood]

Hi Guys
This is my first post on this site. A box I made and entered in the Furniture and Cabinet making magazine competition in November 2003 in Axminster, UK gained me a second place in the Trained amateur category. It has 80 dovetails in timber that is 6mm on the outside and 4mm thick drawer sides.

I am a member of the Sketchucation forum found at www.sketchucation.com

If you are interested in downloading Google SketchUp, free version, you will be able to read/download stuff that I am posting there. Carry out a search under jewellery box.

I will happily answer any questions on that site simply because I can reply using words and 3d models that you can rotate, zoom into etc. Using Sketch Up is a brilliant way of communicating.

I’ve only just starting posting on the sketchucations forum. At present I have uploaded designs for two dovetail templates that I designed and use.

My next posting will be a set of dovetail knives.

Hope this is of use.

Alan Wood:)

[Al Mock MD]

I got distracted by those chisels, too. Beautiful. I'm certainly no expert (and head for the Leigh more often than I should) but after reading the SMC archives, I improved rapidly. A proper mallet made a big difference for me, as did a perpendicular alignment block with a bottom chamfer (so I could see my register lines as I chopped, pronounced "butchered"). Oh yeah, and a quality marking knife/mortise gauge. I think of hand-cut dovetails as insurance...anyone who's mastered the technique surely must go to Heaven.

[Charlie Mastro]

Great box Alan. Love the handles, then again I like anything with that Japanese influnence. Good on you, mate.

[alan wood]

Hi Charlie
thanks for that
Alan
:) :)

["Gary Brewer"]

Hi Pat: There is new CD by Lonnie Bird on making dovetails. I bought it and found it very helpful in my recent experience into making hand cut dovetails.
Gary

[Pat Zabrocki]

I'll check it out, I've read some of Lonnie's articles and books and I like them. I did buy the Cosman video and I like it. I think I'll see how it goes with his methods first.

cheers
Pat

[alan wood]

Hi Pat,
If you want a dovetail template have a look at my posting on
the sketchucation web site. www.sketchucation.com (http://www.sketchucation.com/). Search for jewellery box. You will see two dovetail templates there that I made and used to made the box shown in my first posting here.

If you are willing to download google sketchup, free version you will be able to view my models in 3d, all the measurements etc. Believe me it will be worth a small amount of time learning how to use sketchup, just to view peoples 3d models.

Furniture and Cabinet making magazine in the UK ran a series of articles by Rob and I personally feel that from what I read, that there is a better way of getting a result.

Rob talks about using a pencil for marking the tails. I don’t think you will have much success with this method. I was taught at school to using a knife, with a metal dovetail marking template. I have just adapted and improved on one that I used years ago.

I also use a knife blade with a single bevel, all important little bits of stuff that will help.

I feel that most of the authors are peddling the same old stuff year in year out, with very little new stuff.

The problem is they miss out stuff. I have never seen an article in this country or America where the authors have in my view explained the topic of marking dovetails by hand well enough. The reason probably is lack of space in the magazine. In a recent article in the UK they even used phtoshop or similar product to hide the gaps!!

I want to be completely open here from the outset.

I believe there is a market for a product that explains all the secrets to successful dovetailing and I will eventually be producing a product, maybe dvd or 'downloads' on this very topic, but initially all the stuff is free on the sketchucation web page.

Have a look, it will cost you nothing.

Hope this helps

regards from a dry and sunny Merseyside UK

Alan

;)