Blue Spruce Dovetail Chisels?

[Erich Weidner]

A very recent thread on chisel land thickness makes me want to ask...

When is a chisel like the Blue Spruce dovetail chisel better than a regular bevel edged chisel?

I'm just getting started with dovetails. I also am trying to decide which chisel style I like best. I have had the blue plastic Marples chisels for over a decade but recently bought a LN 3/8" chisel, a BS 1 1/2" pairing chisel, and a Veritas 3/4" bench chisel to try different styles. (Well, really just the LN and Veritas, as the pairing chisel is obviously a different beast... I just wish I had got the long handle on it)

Anyway, aside from the size difference, the Veritas has very thin lands (so sharp I've been cutting myself holding them and I think I'm going to stone them a bit). The LN is comparatively much thicker. All of the videos I own feature accomplished wood workers using "regular" bench chisels for dovetailing. I've seen mention of fishtail chisels for clean-up as well.

So, when does something like the BS dovetail chisel come into its own vs a quality regular beveled bench chisel? Or is it frivolous?

[Jim Matthews]

I avoid dovetails, so take this suggestion with a dose of salt...

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I practice cutting a pair of tails and three mating pins in Poplar before cutting for reals.
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Chopping dovetails requires a chisel handle you can comfortably manipulate, for the duration of the session. I find plastic handles slippery.


There's no reason you couldn't wear a glove on the "guiding" hand while chopping.
(Showa Atlas 451, for example)


Wearing that might also reduce the incidental leaks your suffering due to excellent sharpening technique.

To get into the deep corners, a skew chisel or finely sharpened narrow chisel (Marples or EA Berg for mine)
does fine. Some use their marking knife.

Bright backlighting helps, and a small engineer's square can be used to check alignment (hold the blade flat against the side of pins and tails to see if they're square to the board face).

Many competent drawer makers will chamfer the leading edge of wide "tail" to ease assembly.

I was taught to assemble with a smaller hammer (and block) rather than use clamps. If clamps are necessary, splitting a board is a real risk.

Dovetails generste wedging forces that can split a board down the middle after glue up, if they're too tight.

Ian Kirby wrote an excellent and easy read on this.