a dovetail experiment.

[Jake Darvall]

Just another idea I've been meaning to try. Managed to do them yesterday.

Trying to make them look little less rigid. Mostly like them half lapped in some way so you don't see all that rectangular end grain.

But what I've tried here for the first time is just rounded out the ends of the pins with a gouge. Looking more like arrow heads I guess.

No doubt been done before, but I think they looked quite nice.

[Jon Nelson]

Those look great. A very interesting twist on an old standby. I like them a lot.

Nice work!

[Michael Gibbons]

Now you did it Jake. Some of us can't hardly do DT's with a straight chisel let alone a curved one. They are nice though...neat idea.

.....Mike

[Don C Peterson]

Those are very nice. For some pieces I could see those really complementing the look. Good idea.

How much time did those take compared to regular DT's? And how did you lay them out? On normal DT joints that surface is just the edge of the board, so you obviously have to mark the tails somewhat shy of the thickness of the board. But then how do you accurately scribe where to cut with the gouge?

[jonathan snyder]

Very nice Jake. Looks like that one worked out nicely for you. I would have never thought of that. Of course, I'm with Michael, as I have a hard enough time cutting regular dt's let alone Darvall dt's!!

JOnathan

[Jake Darvall]

ta. Have your good and bad days eh. What I found was a major improvement for me was day I bought a japanese Z saw. With a saw like that and good light I felt I could follow a line spot on, and started to get good fits straight off the saw.

But some days my results are quite ordinary. My first attempt at the pins of this joint failed. Had to do it again.



How much time did those take compared to regular DT's? And how did you lay them out? On normal DT joints that surface is just the edge of the board, so you obviously have to mark the tails somewhat shy of the thickness of the board. But then how do you accurately scribe where to cut with the gouge?

I like to keep it simple for myself. So I look for the things I can't change and go from there. In this case it was the width of the gouge I chose. So everything was measured from it.

Took some photos for you with a bit of scrap. Bit easier for me to describe.

I do tails first so I can scribe with a knife onto end grain, so I can get that jap saw accuracy I like.

pic 1 - so uno, scribe off the distance with the marking guage on the tails.

pic 2 - then just measure out where I want the pins to go. Just ordinary pencil will do.

pic 3 - then I press the gouge in right on the line around middle of each pencil mark.

pic 4 - then with sliding bevel or whatever you use I scribe the lines off the ends of the gouge mark. I wouldn't scribe these lines right on. I'd give yourself a bit of room for the gouge, so when your cleaning out the tails with it, you don't bruse over past the line.

Then, I just squint real hard with plenty of light.....cross my fingers and cut on those lines. Try and keep the cuts as straight as possible, leaving the line.

Then I get a drill bit small enough to fit in the waste area and drill a hole in each....This will make that small area easier to clear....which I do then with a small 3mm dovetail chisel....when most of its gone I take the gouge through. All chisel cuts are taken from both side of course.

Then once these tails are all clean, I line them up on the pins and scribe them off. I use an old scraper blade that I've sharpened with a bevel. Something thin enough to get into these tight tails.Your success is mostly governed by that scribe I believe. Much squinting at that point. Bite down on my tongue. pull faces in concentration ;)

They took quite a while to do Don. Imagine I'll get quicker with time, but at the moment its real slow. What slows me down the most is half lapping, because I can't drop the saw all the way through. Through dovetails I'm quite quick at, but then you see all that end grain. I don't like that. But each to there own.

[John Shuk]

Great looking dovetails.

[Mike Cutler]

Those are very nice Jake. I'm going to have to have a go at 'em someday. I've never been a big fan of exposed dovetails, just not my thing. Your version adds a design element.

Thank you.

[Jim Becker]

I think this is a very interesting alternative, Jake! Keep the ideas flowing! It's such a neat way to make joinery more and more part of the design in special ways.

[Don Pierson]

Go to the head of the class...you get the Tom Brady award for dovetails!

[Zahid Naqvi]

that opens up a whole bunch of possibilities, you pulled this one off quite nicely.

[Don C Peterson]

Jake,

Thanks for that explanation. That's one to keep in mind for the future.

[Kevin French]

Got to jump on the 'WAY COOL' Bandwagon.

I'm gearing up to make a Blanket Chest for SWMBO, looks like I have something else to think about.

Send the pics to FW, I see a free tool in it

[Thom Sturgill]

I agree thats 'WAY COOL'. Definitely raises the bar for new-comers... don't know how anyone would top that - maybe undulating DTs?

[Pam Niedermayer]

Very nice, Jake. Seems to me that if you have a thin enough saw kerf you could hold off making the rounded part on the tail side until you're ready to chop the waste. You could pare with the scribing chisel as the last step.

Pam

[Jason Roehl]

Definite "outside the box" points, there! I could see many variations on that--vees either way, curve the other way, s-curves, then even mixing up different profiles on one joint for a "playful" look to it.

Very cool.

[Mark Singer]

Nice look and still basic dovetail skills will do it! Very nice looking dovetails also!