The new challenge on my latest project is handcutting sliding dovetails to add strength (and decoration a bit) to the joining of interior divider panels. While the dado is nearly 20 inches long, the dovetail only covers the first 4 inches. It takes a bit of fiddling to cut, but I’m please with my first one (only 6 more to go).
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That's about as well as one could be cut.
I'm worried it was just beginner's luck.
Thanks for the vote of confidence.
Samson,
One of Lonnie Bird's tricks for cutting half-blind dovetails "by hand" involves a (shhhh) router. He routs out the waste before cleaning up with a chisel. I call it cheating, but I suppose it's the same as milling stock with a jointer and planer before finishing with a handplane.
Chris @ flairwoodworks
- 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
In this sliding dovetail, unless you went whole hog and just used a dovetail bit in your router, getting rid of some waste here and there wouldn't help much. The tricky part of this is matching up the tail to the slot since you cannot mark the slot dimensions directly from the tail. Slicing those long angled sides on the tail and the slot is where the rubber meets the road. Hogging out waste is a pleasant break.
Samson,
I guess what I am suggesting is routing out the entire dovetail and using your chisel to create a slightly imperfect fit at the end where it is visible to make it look as if it's hand made.Chris @ flairwoodworks
- 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, that wouldn't do for me for several reasons
- it would be more work; jigging up the router and making all those test runs, etc.
- I doubt I could make it look handmade (the aesthetic is not just slight imperfections) - for example, have you ever seen furniture that has been intensionally "distressed"? Or, have you ever seen CNC or router and Leigh type jig cut dts in a drawer that you mistook for hand made?
- I wouldn't enjoy the process nearly as much
- less fun
- less satisfying
I guess what I am suggesting is routing out the entire dovetail and using your chisel to create a slightly imperfect fit at the end where it is visible to make it look as if it's hand made. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeee... WHY? ( :> ) )If it FITS it FITS!
Technically, that's a housed dovetail joint and it looks sweet. I like to use them when my stiles are thick enough and the same idea of short DT/long dado whenever possible. But when my stiles are 3/4 like shown below, a sliding DT will still strenghten the box. On this one the panels have the matching dado.
Joe
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They look great. Thanks for the nomenclature tip too - "housed dovetail" - got it.
Samson,
How did you cut this joint? I bought a small saw from Tools for Working Wood that I thought would cut out the angled part of the joint but haven't tried it yet.
Dave
I didn't use a saw at all except for a tenon saw to cut the shoulders. The sides of the tails are quickly shaved with a chisel. The "housing" waste was removed with a router plane (Lee Valley's large one) and then, again, the sides were shaved with a chisel. Marking is the tricky part. I used a wheel gauge, a small combo square, my knife and various other stuff to get good marks to follow. There may well be better ways to do it, this was just the one I came up with.
Screwing around with a paint program on my lunch hour at work, I put together this quick and dirty step by step of how I cut mine. Old timers (aka: the more experienced, intelligent, and adept) will surely come along and tell me that I did it all wrong, or otherwise made it harder and more complicated than it "should be," but for what it's worth:
Thanks Samson. I wish I could find one of those old Stanley tools for making these, but they're very rare.
Dave
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