Morning tails, lunch pins

[Tony Shea]

A special Sunday edition of dovetails. Some progress today. Baselines gaps remain, but that is product me being to aggressive with the chisel. The tails and pins fit really well with only minor fine tuning to get them to mate. More importantly, for me anyway, they fit mostly flush off the saw and they came together square. Perhaps one day soon a box will be the end result of all the cutting and chopping.

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You're getting very close!! The next thing I would work on is the aesthetics of the joint. IMO, you should be using less tails that are wider and slightly narrower pins. Take a look around at some of the more well known woodworkers and look at their proportions. I would highly recommend looking around Derek Cohen's website and check out some of his dovetail articles and furniture builds. Another great resource for laying out the dovetails is Christopher Schwarz's method. This works great if you're looking for a symmetric tail layout and you can fine tune the size of the pins by whatever is left over after dividing across the width of the board. This will make more sense after you watch the method. On wider case work I prefer a layout that has a wide tail in the center of the board with smaller tails on the outside but this is completely personal preference. Either way I think your tails should be much wider than what you have there especially in thicker stock you're using. Keep on cutting and don't be afraid to just make a box out of your practice pieces. I think it's a waste of material if you don't complete the process. You also learn other aspects of the craft such as grooves, fitting a bottom, making a lid, installing hinges, etc.

[Tim Best]

Evening all,

I have to echo Tony's comment. Derek's website and willingness to constructively engage with everyone on this site is simply amazing. Thanks.

Tonight's dovetails represent a couple of departures. First, they are not morning tails, evening pins. Just a quick set cut because I needed a break from the office this evening. Second, there are fewer of them. I took Tony's advice and cut a couple larger tails with one very small pin in the middle. I like the aesthetics and I will keep tinkering with size and proportions. Third, I re-sharpened my dovetail saw. My initial sharpening last week produce a fast cut, but also made it hard to start the saw. Things went much smoother tonight after the re-sharpening. Fourth, I think I have done enough experimental joints to demonstrate to myself that dovetails can be cut by my hands. It is time to turn the practice into something usable. Still need practice as tonight's pics demonstrate, but I think I need a box. Maybe one with a lid and bottom to declutter the bench top. Anyway, enjoy and thanks for the advice and thoughtful critiques.

(Apologies for the shadows, my overhead lights were on the fritz tonight so I shut them off before I took the pics)

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