Thread: Finally getting the upper hand on dovetails

Looks good

That shows what practise does. Too many give up after the first attempts are failures when all they need to do is practise. Did you buy a saw to help you along?

Looks good.

If you can do them in pine, you can do them in anything.

Pine would have to be some heinous joke inflicted upon us by very evil people.

It's the opposite......pine dove tails are very forgiving as the wood has a certain amount of give in it allowing you to squeeze the joint together.

Try it in air dried English oak.....

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Looks very nice. Your on your way now.

Wow. Looks Terrific. Maybe I should not give up either. Have lots of draws in my work bench I could practice on.

Originally Posted by Chris Parks

That shows what practise does. Too many give up after the first attempts are failures when all they need to do is practise. Did you buy a saw to help you along?

Yes I have all LN saws but I have found the best one's for the shoulders is my Dozuki Jap saw after knifing in the line and because the blade is so thin it just rests nicely in that line. I've tried many times to do the shoulders without success using a small carcass saw but thin blade saws work just great for me. This dozuki is a dovetail saw anyway I bought it at carba tec and when the teeth become blunt you just chuck it away because the teeth are so small it's impossible to sharpen. I think the saw is around $60, but I think it will last me a life time anyway I mean their only small shoulder lines.

Originally Posted by tea lady

Wow. Looks Terrific. Maybe I should not give up either. Have lots of draws in my work bench I could practice on.

That's right don't give up no matter how long it takes you one day it'll just click and all will fall in it's place but still keep practising till it's perfect for you. Remember your not replicating machine work there will always be some inconsistancies and all those photos you see in the woodworking mags none of them are super close ups so they look perfect from a distance so never beats yourself over it I'm sure they don't.

Originally Posted by Evanism

If you can do them in pine, you can do them in anything.

Pine would have to be some heinous joke inflicted upon us by very evil people.

Pine is more forgiving as tight joints compress better while in hardwood you don't get that second chance from what I'm told anyway. I had pine that I bought for practising all types of joints as it's cheaper than poplar which I prefer to work with. For some reason Masters really rip into your pockets with poplar I never understood why though but they treat it as oak it just goes to show how little they know and greedy they are. But Poplar is fantastic for hand tool work and is a hard wood as well I really do like that timber a lot while in the U.S. they will never use it as a show piece I don't why though may be one of US members can answer this.

Nice work. Now you can make a 12 drawer tall boy or a wall hanging tool cabinet, or .... etc etc etc

They look very good to me. Well done sir.

Originally Posted by Ozziespur

Nice work. Now you can make a 12 drawer tall boy or a wall hanging tool cabinet, or .... etc etc etc

That's why people fail they try to run before they can walk, I'm learning the basics of joinery I have a life time ahead of me for what you suggest but it's the joinery that makes furniture. Mastering them is my goal at this moment once that's complete everything else will follow suit.

Originally Posted by section1

...after knifing in the line and because the blade is so thin it just rests nicely in that line. I've tried many times to do the shoulders without success using a small carcass saw but thin blade saws work just great for me..

Section1, ideally, you should cut just on the waste side of your line, for both pins & tails. If the saw is super thin, I guess you can get away with putting it in the scribe line for utility dovetails, but I doubt you will ever achieve really tight joints by sawing in the line with any saw, unless it were infinitely thin.

Radiata is not a particularly easy wood to cut perfect dovetails with, but better than softer pines like Hoop. I'm happy to use it for utility drawers, as long as I can choose my pieces. Some radiata will cut fairly crisply, but all soft woods tend to crush when chopped perpendicular to the grain. The trick is to keep those edges sharp & take small slices. The worst aspect of radiata is the pronounced difference in hardness of the early/late rings. Saws tend to follow the softer early wood & skate off the hard latewood rings when sawing the tails & pins. This is more pronounced with dull & thicker saws, hence the frustration many experience with this wood, I think.

As I understand it, the reason our cousins across the Pacific like Poplar as a 'secondary' wood is because it is usually a fine & straight-grained wood which cuts crisply with chisels & saws, making joinery a bit easier. A bit of trivia - most of the 'poplar' used in the eastern part of North America is 'tulip poplar' which isn't really a Poplar at all, but a member of the Magnolia family. The true poplars are rather small trees, & their wood can be difficult to dry without excessive degrade. If you want a rough equivalent in local woods, try Crow's Ash, which is denser than any poplar, but works very nicely....

Cheers,