m1sterj1mmy

Reading through the postings the general consensus seems to be that hand cut dovetails are the pinnacle of woodworking skill and as such we all must strive toward mastering them. Dovetails have become synonymous with “the right way” when perhaps it should be synonymous with “because we have always done it that way”.

We praise innovation in furniture design, but I would be willing to bet that the first thing any of us would do is pull out a drawer to check for dovetails using that to base our opinion of the construction on that.

Why did this one aspect of woodworking become the measure of one's skill? Were dovetails not created originally because they afford both tremendous strength, and beauty? Today we have many more options for providing the required strength (How Strong Is Your Glue?) but the stigma of a drawer without them remains. This is evident when talking to anyone with virtually no knowledge of woodworking, they always want dovetails even though they don’t know why.

If creativity in furniture design is so admired why not in joinery as well?