Re: 3 minute dovetails,
http://www.popularwoodworking.com/article/klausz/
All saw no chis. For making shop boxes/drawers, not too shabby.
Not exactly fine working but with the time saved, think of how much more time he can spend with his 30,000 grit Shapton!
I can name that tune in 3 notes….
So how fast are your dovetails?
BB
Replies
Amazing! I sure would like to have one of those blades with the right angle bend in it.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.
~ Denis Diderot
Me too. save having to adjust that handle.
BB
Actually, if you look at the vid closely, it's not a special blade -- he just has the front handle straight and the rear handle twisted so the thin blade twists over it's lenght.
I'm gonna try that!
Mike HennessyPittsburgh, PA
Check out Stephen Sheperd's blog. He shows how to make your own cranked bowsaw blades.
http://www.fullchisel.com/blog/?p=229
Regards,
-Chuck
Excellent! Thanks for the link, I'm going to give that a shot.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
don,
one assumes that after precision and perfection comes a need for speed?
every dovetail i cut is done with a certain amount of fear and awe. fear of failure and awe when i get it right.
im, as yet, taking my time. i can still recall the days when a well-cut rabbet joint was cause enough for joy.
eef
eef
I'm not so sure that I would use that method for a product I was going to sell, for shop fixtures it could be the cats meow.
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Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.~ Denis Diderot
> one assumes that after precision and perfection comes a need for speed?I watched the Klausz video years ago and my technique suffered until I learned to slow down first.
I've seen him in seminar twice over the years and haved honed eyeball cuts to relatively fast. But.. what took him 3 minutes to cut would have taken me 30 as I cut relief lines on a band-saw and then chisel out. I honestly believe he can cut them blind-folded after seeing him cut them live at Highland Woodworking.
3 minutes... In his own words... "Do you think I have done this before? Maybe twice...
Sarge..
Sarge,saw (no pun) one of those turbo blades years ago at Highland, Left me with trepidations. Maybe have to try it out on my framer and see if it speeds anything up. Put it on my North Pole list.
More and more, for non production stuff, I'm reaching for hand saws etc. quick xcut, short rip or whatever. You have one?Doc
I use hand-saws often but not a bow saw. I have the cheap Irwin 19 T fine pull saw made in Japan for Irwin to do both DT and fine detail work. I used it just the other day on a shoe rack with non through dadoes as I wanted the shelves to extend beyond the dado to allow for expansion.
I love that little saw as I sold a LN Independence DT saw as I have found I prefer a pull cut as opposed to a push. I just seem to control a pull cut better for whatever reason. I have never used a bow saw period and at my age not sure I could pick one up.. much less control it. But.. probably not as heavy as a chain saw which I do frequently use. Just not on furniture except when it is exceptionally bad. :>)
Regards...
Sarge..
good morning bb,
im not getting them done in 3 minutes. i am, however, enjoying any time that i get to cut dovetails. im still very much focussed on accuracy. these days im working on a pine chest for my daughter that is immeresed in dovetail work. ive been cutting pins and tails for days. im a tage frid, pins first guy.
eef
Yeah, on those big jobs it does seem to go on and on. Enjoyment is one of the best parts. Post a shot when your done.BB
bb,
enjoyment is certainly the name-of-the-game. although ive never done it and i dont know how, ill post some pictures when complete.
eef
Rob Cosman also did one of these videos, it's on his homepage (http://www.robcosman.com). I saw Rob do it at the local woodshow, in just under 3min 30 seconds.
The dovetails appeared to be better fit then Frank's, however Rob didn't have Frank's 'cool-ness' while cutting...
Reminds me of Tom Knapp, the exhibition shooter, who can throw 9 standard clay targets into the air, and then individually shoot them all with his shotgun before they hit the ground.
I particularly enjoyed his use of a conventional nail hammer to "tap" the joint together.
BB,
It is not just dovetails.
I can eat a three scoop ice cream sunday in just over a minute and a half.
I have played the Minute Waltz in under 48 seconds.
I play very quickly with my grandchild.
I have checked out all of the exhibits in the Hirschorn museum in less than 14 minutes.
I try for exceptional speed in all aspects of woodwork.
All this lets me spend more time on the most important thing in the world -- trading messages with my friends on Knots !!!!!! It just doesn't get any better than this !!!!! Why not just speed through everything else?
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Give them some Maple that is 2" thick and then they might show how most need to learn to do their work.
Just for fun, for something different to do, I tried cutting a dovetail joint with two tails, a full pin, and two half pins. For comparison, I used a western saw and a japanese saw, two corners with each. I started timing and laid out my joint, cut & chopped out the pins, transferred the marks to to the tail board, cut and chopped them out, then fit the joint. The joints were as ugly as they can get, but they are mechanically sound. My fastest time was with the Japanese saw - just under four minutes. The Western saw for me took about a half minute longer (I find it harder to start) and yielded slightly worse fitting joints. Before you start analysing my results, let me say that I am a rookie at cutting dovetails, but I am practicing and getting better!
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Yeah, Frank Klausz has been doing this "thing" for years and it's quite impressive. But let's keep it in perspective, OK?
If you're turning out dovetails in a production situation, then you're not cutting them by hand anyway.
If you're making high-end custom cabinets one-at-a-time, then what does it really matter on a piece that takes 200 hours of work if the dovetails get done in 15 minutes or a whole hour?
Klausz is a virtuoso at this, but I would only chuckle if anyone wastes his time trying to make this into an Olympic event.
David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
Wasn't being serious, but I have seen some production work that may have been done that way. That company is out of business. Obviously not for quality work but it's just plain fun to watch him. Loved the hammer pound at the end.
Edited 11/19/2008 9:45 am by boilerbay
I do believe that at the end of the video that it is mentioned that the method would be for shop cabinets and drawers.. etc. I don't think they attempted to portray those DT's as furniture grade. If you looked at them closely.. they simply aren't furniture grade IMO but are what one might consider shop grade which is what was stated clearly to me.
BTW.. I have seen Frank Klaus cut DT's in seminar twice. He can cut furniture grade but... not as quickly as he can cut shop grade. Does that make any sense? ha.. ha...
Sarge..
As I understand Frank's early training, part of his duties was to make shipping containers and similar "rough" work. No cardboard boxes or methods that are currently used in shipping departments were the norm then.Time was money and he was expected to make many crates as quickly as possible. The demo on that video was just of one corner of 2 small pieces of wood. His job was to work that fast to finish an entire container, whatever its size.The dovetails in that video would not even be acceptable for shop cabinets, or the like. They were the kind that Frank made for those shipping crates. Utilitarian, not pretty, but very strong, very fast. No measurements other than the scoring tool based on the stock thickness, then just his eye and hand coordination.Rich
Yes, I understand where he's coming from and it's very impressive. I also admire the guys who handplane oak staves to make barrels. But these are skills that have become irrelevant for 99.9% of the people doing woodworking today, whether as a hobby or as a profession.David Ring
http://www.touchwood.co.il/?id=1&lang=e
I've seen Frank in a couple of videos and vastly respect his knowledge and his work. I think that by doing the "three minute dovetail" he's not really trying to impress anyone with how fast he can do a dovetail as he is saying, IMO, "look here, dovetails are no big deal, just do them".
It's kind of like a post I remember from this forum several years ago. Poster was talking about a Stanley 45 and he said "use it, don't worship it"!
Go Frank! Beat the record! LOL
Regards to all,
Mack
"Close enough for government work=measured with a micrometer, marked with chalk and cut with an axe"
I went to the Woodworking in America Conference over the weekend in Berea, KY and attended a couple of seminars with Frank as the speaker. He demonstrated how to cut dovetails pins first and was explaining exactly what you said. He doesn't care how pretty and precisely measured the dovetail is, he just wants it to be strong. Here's a video of the actual class I attended. The Conference was an awesome event and I will attend it again next year if I have the chance.
http://sandal-woodsblog.com/2008/11/19/wia-dovetailing-pins-vs-tails/
Edited 11/19/2008 10:49 pm ET by mvflaim
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