My first handcut dovetails

[Eric Sink]

I've been trying to put this off. I've watched Cosman's video several times. I've bought tools. I've read books. I've done everything I could to avoid cutting my first set of dovetails because I wanted my first set to be really good.

And then tonight I decided that this was a dumb way to approach the learning process. It's probably impossible to learn how to cut dovetails without cutting any dovetails. So this evening I went out to the shop, and I decided I wasn't going to worry about how they turned out.

Well, the result looks pretty bad.

I suppose I could have made it easier on myself. Curly white oak is arguably not the recommended wood for learning to cut dovetails.

I had a heckuva time getting the joint to go together at all. Plenty of trimming with a chisel was required.

I even screwed up the orientation of the boards. In the picture you can see the word "inside" written on one of the boards, now on the outside of the joint.

But at least the joint is square!

I'm going to watch Cosman's video again, with a newfound appreciation for his skills. And then I'm going to try and do a little better the second time.

But I'm keeping this piece so that someday when I improve my skills I can look at far I've come.

Anybody else end up with a really ugly first set of dovetails?