Hand cut joinery beginner

[Prashun Patel]

This post resonates with me. Well said. I too am a Shannon Rodgers fan for western saw selection and technique.

[Brian Eaton]

Thank you, everyone, for all of the feedback and advice! I am trying to absorb it all - I have definitely been watching a ton of YouTube videos by a lot of different people and have been trying things out. Though it won’t necessarily show in the photos I post below, I’ve been practicing straight and angled cuts on scrap and have noticed a lot of improvement.

I am using a Japanese saw and the biggest thing that helped was to hold the saw further back on the handle - initially i was choked up too much on the blade (kind of like you might hold a chef’s knife) and felt like I was fighting the saw. The second i moved my hand back towards the end of the handle i immediately relaxed more and had more control of my cuts.

Attached is a photo of the first and second dovetail test joints along with a simple box i made out of .5”x3” poplar. Still many mistakes - I have no idea how one of the pins on the box was cut so badly...it was cut to the line and I’m still scratching my head about how I mis-marked it... Also a few close-ups of the joints on the box.

Also attached, just for fun since they don’t really involve hand joinery, are some crates i made my wife for our master closet and a beer tote i made for my parents as a house warming gift since they just bought a new house.

[David Eisenhauer]

Those you are showing will work Brian in that they should not pull apart. As you continue to gain experience, you will continue to slide in closer to the lines when you make your initial cuts and end up with slightly tighter joints. Good stuff.

[Dan Hulbert]

Paul Sellers has some great tips for cutting dovetails. Along with lots of other tips on hand tool techniques.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Your 1 and 2 dovetails are kind of amazing for 1 and 2. You are obviously doing something right!

[Brian Eaton]

Those you are showing will work Brian in that they should not pull apart. As you continue to gain experience, you will continue to slide in closer to the lines when you make your initial cuts and end up with slightly tighter joints. Good stuff.

Thanks! Just trying to take baby steps!

1

[Brian Eaton]

Paul Sellers has some great tips for cutting dovetails. Along with lots of other tips on hand tool techniques.

Yep! I've watched those videos several times already and they are bookmarked on my browser.1

[Brian Eaton]

Your 1 and 2 dovetails are kind of amazing for 1 and 2. You are obviously doing something right!

Thanks! The perfectionist in me wishes they were better but I know I'll get there eventually!1

[David Eisenhauer]

Almost all of the You Tube guys show dovetails - David Barron is another one.

[Prashun Patel]

Those are wonderful. If you sand and finish them, you'll see they look even better.

The thing to strive for isn't perfection of fit, but perfection of fit with minimal paring. So, strive to improve your saw placement and precision.

To that end, we make a big deal around the Internet on dovetails. But in the stuff I typically build, accurate M&T is more common (albeit less sexy).

If I could go back, I would focus more on marking, wasting, and paring mortises and sawing perfect tenons.

[Matt Evans]

Those are wonderful. If you sand and finish them, you'll see they look even better.

The thing to strive for isn't perfection of fit, but perfection of fit with minimal paring. So, strive to improve your saw placement and precision.

To that end, we make a big deal around the Internet on dovetails. But in the stuff I typically build, accurate M&T is more common (albeit less sexy).

If I could go back, I would focus more on marking, wasting, and paring mortises and sawing perfect tenons.

I completely agree.

I also think that Brian has done a remarkable job with the dovetails. If they are looking like that, and you've figured out your sawing technique, then moving on to a different joint might be more productive in the long run. Mortise and tenon joint would be a good joint to get comfortable with. Like Prashun, I tend to use the mortise and tenon joint more than nearly anything else.

[Brian Eaton]

I completely agree.

I also think that Brian has done a remarkable job with the dovetails. If they are looking like that, and you've figured out your sawing technique, then moving on to a different joint might be more productive in the long run. Mortise and tenon joint would be a good joint to get comfortable with. Like Prashun, I tend to use the mortise and tenon joint more than nearly anything else.

Thanks! The perfectionist in me isn’t quite ready to move on to other joints yet but I’ve been watching Matt Estlea videos on YouTube and I think, after getting myself a marking gauge and mortise chisel or two I may start tackling the joint frame he works on throughout several of his videos.

Right now I’ve got some thin (1/2”) poplar that i’m using to practice dovetails and turn in to little boxes. I’d eventually like to make a small pull-out drawer cabinet to practice rabbets, etc. so some dovetails may make it into the drawers for that.

I finished up a 1st joint for a second little box tonight and am much more pleased with how it turned out! See below for a few photos...

[Jim Koepke]

Brian, they are looking a lot better than my early attempts at dovetails.

jtk

[David Eisenhauer]

Plane your cutting lines off and then resend a photo. Bet they look even better than they already do.

[Brian Eaton]

It's been a while since I've posted on this thread and I've kept busy with a few various projects, all the while practicing dovetails during down time. My latest are here:
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I think they are by far the best I've done so far. I'm a perfectionist so I'll keep practicing these until I feel like I can be consistent enough not to get into a project, mess up, and have to start over with it. Incidentally, I took advantage of the scrap I used to make the grain continuous from piece to piece - not sure if that is a thing when dovetails are involved (I've seen it on mitered corners) but it was easy enough to implement as part of the practice.

In the mean time, I've kept myself busy with a blanket ladder for my wife (I cheated on this and used my miter saw and pocket screws). Finished with brown mahogany gel stain and several coats of arm r seal - aside from some blotching (you live, you learn) which doesn't look terrible it turned out very nicely:
IMG_2776.jpg

Not sure how to rotate the photos in a post - it is in the correct orientation on my computer but for whatever reason when I upload it turns it on its side.

Also, I have made a few phone cradles out of some scrap flamed maple I got from my brother-in-law (too small for much anything else). I dimensioned the material by hand but did cheat and used a router to chamfer the edges and make the groove the phone sits in. Apologies for the blurry photo but I really like how the figure in each one stands out....I'm finishing them in Danish Oil and will likely top that with a few coats of arm r seal for protection. The table top stand mentioned below convinced me for the time being at least to stick with non-stain finishes and just start working with wood that is already the color/tone i'm looking for in the finished product.
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Additionally, I've been working on a table top music stand/book stand - all hand worked with half lap joints for the center column & top and bottom and mortise and tenons for the smaller supports. I really enjoyed learning these techniques and feel like it turned out pretty well - I did practice each of the joints on scrap once before I did so for this project. It is currently in the process of being finished and I'm not thrilled with the stain which, as mentioned above, made me decide to stick with natural finishes - I'd rather work on improving my wood working skills at the moment than spend a bunch of time trying to figure out stain/finishes. Ideally I'd like to make another one of these out of some of the maple I just bought as I made this one mostly as a proof of concept.
IMG_2757.jpg

In the near future it is on my to-do list to try out shellac for the first time but my next project will be a split top saw bench so that I don't have to awkwardly rip lumber to size clamped to my workbench.11