Speaking of Dovetail Planes

[Jason Beam]

After seeing Harry's fantastic electron muncher, and then a few examples of adrenalin-fed ones, I started searching around for what's out there in the way of dovetail planes. I have a project coming up that will require some long sliding dovetails at the ends of some long panels.

My hope for this project was to do my best to use hand tools as much as possible. So I started hunting around the web. I found Steve Knight's and one by ECE, and I read what Patrick Leach feels about the Stanley #444. It seems that around there is where I hit a dead end. I'm not finding much else on them. It seems like such a handy thing to have (in my mind) for sliding dovetails.

Do you fine folks know of any other offerings? Can be wood or metal, I'm not too picky (unless someone can lead me to be) in that regard. Not having ever touched/used one of these things I don't fully know what questions I should be asking about them. I assume there are ways to adjust depth of cut, length of tail and that kind of thing. I would be surprised if one existed that allowed you to select the pitch of the tail, too, but I suppose it's possible.

Having not seen much info on them, I wonder if sliding dovetails were done differently. I suppose sawing a shoulder and going at it with a chisel is possible, but I'd be surprised if I could keep an even pitch at the same time keeping an even depth of cut.

So how about it? Anyone know of other dovetail plane offerings out there?

Much appreciated :)

[Wilbur Pan]

There's a Japanese plane that will cut dovetails. You can find a picture of one on the Hida Tool website (http://www.hidatool.com/shop/woodworking/plane/w_plane_koetsu_dovetail.html).

Having said that, using a saw to cut the sides and then removing the waste with a chisel or router plane is a perfectly good way to make the female part of a sliding dovetail joint. An angled piece of wood can serve as a jig to keep your cut at a consistent angle, and remember that the only part that needs to be really tight is the end of the joint that shows.

[Chuck Hamman]

Jason,
Here is a link to another forum posting I made that describes how I reworked an old beater woodie to cut the tail portion of a S/D and the guide I made to cut the socket. It isn't my idea originally and I make reference to the originator in the post.
go to taunton.com and the knots discussion board, search for a thread titled "Oh dear dovetails" my post is numbered 30561.39

You'll recognize the guy who made the post following mine. be sure to read his post as well.

-Chuck

[harry strasil]

you can use a #95 to cut the sliding tails by simply adding a tapered wedge to the fence side. A little tricky holding it square with the end tho

[harry strasil]

http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?p=661754#post661754

[Dave Anderson NH]

Steve Knight makes dovetails planes as does ECE Emmerich in Germany. ECEs are available in the US from several sources and I also the Lee Valley carries them.

[Chuck Hamman]

Jason,
I just discovered that my link in my first post didn't go as far as I thought it would. Here is a link to the original article:
http://www.furnituremasters.org/moreby.cfm?ID=26

-Chuck

[Chuck Hamman]

Jason,
Here is a link to an article Derek Cohen wrote on the subject. As you have probably figured out, I'm trying to convince you to make your own plane. IMO a $100 + is a lot to spend on one of these planes for all the more that it does. But that's just MO.
http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/dCohen/z_art/dovPlane/index.asp

-Chuck

[Jason Beam]

Thanks for the replies, all. I missed Mike and Derek's responses in the thread that inspired me to start this one.

Chuck, the more I search the more I'm leaning toward making my own, too. The scare for me is the iron. I think I could make a suitable body with reasonable accuracy, but making the iron is the scary part for me. Maybe it shouldn't be and I should just step up and give it a go. It's hard to pretend I don't have a nice fancy router table, though :P

Thanks for all the pointers, everyone!

[Tim Leo]

You don't have to 'make' the iron. Buy a flat soled wooden plane from the *bay and modify it. I took a skew iron plane and cut the sole to the angle I wanted and then ground and sharpened the blade to fit...similar to what Derek did. It works great and I learned a lot about how to fettle a woodie.