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Thread: Cosman Dovetail Class

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Southwest Virginia
    Posts
    277

    Cosman Dovetail Class

    I spent all day on Friday in a dovetailing class with Rob Cosman at the local Woodcraft. We went from 9:00 to 8:00 (some were still going when I left). It was a really good experience. I've been cutting them for a while using the Barron guide and a Japanese saw. I could do them pretty well that way, but it never really felt right. Also, there wasn't enough clearance under the back to do much over about 7/8" thick stock. I was hitting the guide when making my tool chest.

    Rob started out by doing a complete dovetail using his methods. We each then went to a bench and started practicing all the cuts. We practiced starting the cut, sawing straight down, sawing at angles, and sawing perfectly perpendicular. That took most of the morning until we broke for lunch. After lunch, we kept practicing sawing perpendicular on the tail board. That seemed to give everyone the most trouble, but he stressed how critical that cut was to the final look of the joint. His standard was no more than 1/8" out over 6 inches. He measured that by having us leave the saw in the cut and checking it with a 6" square. The best I ever did was 5 out of 6, with the 6th one about 1/4" out.

    We cut rabbets on our tail boards for registration and then used his sawtooth marking knife in the tail board kerfs to mark the pin board, after offsetting it the thickness of the saw kerf. That puts the knife mark exactly where you need to saw the pin board. We then sawed the pins, used fretsaws to clear the waste on both it and the tail boards, and then chopped what was left to the line. He advocates gluing the joint together right off the saw with no paring or dry fitting. The only paring I did was the corners where there were a little bit of waste. I put glue on and drove mine home. It ended up perfectly square and no gaps, the first time I've successfully done that! The only minor issue was I sawed slightly past the line on a couple.

    It really does make a difference seeing someone do it in person and having someone experienced watching to help you make adjustments. Overall, a good day of work and learning.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Hiawatha KS
    Posts
    66
    Sounds like fun. How thick of stock were you using?

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Southwest Virginia
    Posts
    277
    It was typical drawer stock: 5/8 poplar for the tail board and 3/4 walnut for the pins. Here's mine:

    20181028_174025-picsay.jpg

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Dec 2016
    Location
    South West Ontario
    Posts
    1,502
    Your tolerance allowances seem generous! That joint would normally be a blind dovetail, did you practice those as well? Did you try different saws?

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Southwest Virginia
    Posts
    277
    Quote Originally Posted by William Fretwell View Post
    Your tolerance allowances seem generous! That joint would normally be a blind dovetail, did you practice those as well? Did you try different saws?
    You think 1/8" over 6 inches is generous? It was very tough to hit for all of us. We measured that by leaving the saw in the kerf near the handle, holding a 6" square next to the blade against the board, and checking the gap 6 inches out.

    The class was just on through dovetails. In this case, you'd have to use a false front.

    I didn't try any other saws. We had to bring our own. I know some people tried his saw versus theirs though. I think I saw at least one Veritas and maybe a gent's saw.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    NW Indiana
    Posts
    3,078
    I took a class a number of years ago from Cosman and really liked it. He is a high energy guy and great at dovetails. What I have found is that there are many experts and many methods. And, many ways to make dovetails but the secret is practice and sharp tools.

  7. #7
    I, too, recommend taking the class if it's available near you. I've taken the dovetail class and the advanced one (mitered dovetails, houndstooth, etc) and it was great fun. He's an excellent teacher and you become close to the others in the class.

    Michael

  8. #8
    Sounds like it was a good class! I'd enjoy a session with Cosman, myself.
    Fred
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Cedar Rapids Iowa
    Posts
    209
    How much does one of Rob's classes cost? And is there a schedule of where he will be holding classes?
    No, the sky is not falling - just chunks of it are.

  10. #10
    Did he try to hard sell anything in his class? What were they if he did?

    It is a question, not a jab, as Rob has been known to promote his products relentlessly, which is not wrong as he also wears the hat of a salesman. Many other sellers do the same in social media or on their blogs. Plugs are plugs (whether they are prefaced with "shameless" or not, and sellers shouldn't apologize for them).

    Simon

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jul 2015
    Location
    Southwest Virginia
    Posts
    277
    He recommends his line of tools, but it was ok to use others. If you weren't using his, he had some to try so you could compare. I know at least one definitely preferred his saw to the Veritas they brought. He didn't care for my Veritas chisels, but I love them.

  12. #12
    I had the opportunity to learn from Rob for a week in Canada last November. He is a salesman, but not a pushy one at all. I will tell you that his products are very good, and most of the time, are very competitively priced. He used to be a distributor for Lie Nielson and still recommends some of their tools. He does not sell or promote Veritas, though he does say that there is nothing wrong with them and they make good products.

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