I did manage a short excursion out to the shed today – with the intention to try handcutting a dovetail.
Yes, I did manage, no, it isn’t worth showing the result! (I was rushed, so finessing the fit just wasn’t on the cards). Irrespective, it looks no worse than many of the dovetails on current imported furniture, so now I just have to get the standard up (need lots of practice time).
As much as there are all sorts of sawblade guides etc on the market, I found the actual cuts and chiseling to be the easy part. What was difficult (and had a massive impact on the quality of fit) was getting the markup / layout neat. If I had gotten that aspect sorted, the whole evolution would have gone a lot smoother.
An interesting exercise, and I will do quite a bit more to see if I can’t achieve a reasonable (and consistent) quality.
However, using a router with something like the Gifkins jig sure is a lot simpler, and neater (at least for a non-expert)
Cutting the Dovetails
Using the quite beautiful Veritas Dovetail saw from Carbatec. It feels really nice in hand – not your average saw, yet not an unreasonable price either. If you are half tempted, see if the guys will open a box up for you (or rather don’t, because if you are tempted, you will then be sold!)
Chiselling out the waste
It was only a simple dovetail joint – 2 pins, just to test the concept. That’s the Walko workbench underneath it
The final "proof of concept"
No, it isn’t a pretty joint, or even particularly well done. I knew the pins were oversized (better over than under to my mind), because you can always shave them down a fraction, however I’d run out of time and despite knowing the consequences of doing so, took the mallet to it to join them and got the inevitable splits form. Oh well, I needed some more fuel for the potbelly!
Filed under: Techniques Tagged: | Dovetail, Hand Cut
Stuart,
You are correct – practice, practice, and more practice. I will follow your journey, mate!
I need to start doing this myself – I have plenty of scrap lying around the shop. I think is was WOOD Magazine a couple of months ago that had a bit on handcut dovetails. The author suggested the best way to get better at them was to warmup doing them – every time you enter the shop, make a handcut dovetail joint on some scrap pieces. I need to add this to my “To Do” list.