Thread: Please advise: chisels for dovetail cutting

Are you talking about blind dovetails? Perhaps a pair of skewed chisels or a fishtail chisel is what you are after.

Any bevel edge type chisel would be suitable it is more a situation of technique, I have seen dovetails cut with mortise chisels.

Grind the bevel edges to an angle less than the dovetail angle.

Derek Cohen has a good write up on his website; So you want to make a dovetail chisel?

Just a standard dovetails, not the blind ones. OK, so looked up skewed chisels and they may be the ticket. Thanks for your reply.

Originally Posted by China

Any bevel edge type chisel would be suitable it is more a situation of technique, I have seen dovetails cut with mortise chisels.

Taking into account my skills, it will be 10 to 20 years before I develop technique to cut them with mortise chisels

Have some chisels that I could try to grind, will give it a go. Thanks.

Total Tools just had a clearance sale of Stanley chisels; 13/19/25mm sets for $15 instead of $49 so I bought two sets to make a trio of left and right skew chisels. Ok; these are not particularly high quality but their low cost means I have no concerns if I stuff them up and they are tools I will use infrequently anyway.

I recently did a dovetail class at Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking. The bench chisels made available to students were a basic model Stubai Ndeg 3543 STUBAI Chisels with black handle | Stubai ZMV GmbH
They have a 2mm and 6mm in the line up. These have a fairly fine beveled edges, and I found it was possible to cut dovetails in the London Pattern with no problem. The 2mm is fine enough to get to gunk out of the corners when doing blind dovetails too.

I liked these, so bought a set. They're inexpensive, but it is a bit difficult to find the 2mm and 6mm in-stock anywhere.

Why not buy one or two chisels with teeny side bevels and then leave the rest as regular bench chisels. I'm not a fan of super fine side bevels for anything but work where I need to sneak into tight corners. They cut my fingers too easily and don't register as nicely as chisels with nice fat sides.

As China says, any bevel-edged chisel can be used for dovetailing, with a bit of care, but it's much easier & more efficient if you have chisels with sharp lands that can chop out the corners without bruising the edges that are going to be visible on the assembled joint. There are several brands that offer very nice, very sharp-edged chisels that are ideal for the job, but they nearly all come at a premium price. You could buy cheapies & re- grind the edges, tedious but do-able if you have the gear & some experience, but probably not a very appealing route for a beginner.

IMO, the best bet for a beginner would be to go to flea markets and old tool sales & look for old chisels that have reasonably narrow lands. There's a very good chance you'll find some very good chisels at very reasonable prices if you are patient & keep looking. The downside of this approach is that they will often need a fair bit of work to clean up if they've been used roughly, but that also has an upside in that it will give you some practice at fettling & sharpening.

In my experience, the biggest problem most beginners have when making dovetails is sawing accurately. You can saw well-clear of the lines & pare down to them with chisels, but it's really an unsatisfactory method & actually more likely to result in a poor fit than a good one. So make sure you have a decent saw as well as a couple of good chisels. The rest is just practice (lots of it!).

And if you are going to get heavily into woodwork, you'll soon want a set of plain chisels as well as the BE ones - as Truckjohn says, BE chisels are not the best for some jobs where a flat back & thick sides are more helpful. Some folks even have special sets of mortising chisels, paring chisels, butt chisels and various other types of specialty chisels, but you don't need to worry about that sort of foolishness for some time yet.....

Cheers,

Originally Posted by csn

Hello,

I started to learn dovetail joins and have come across the problem of cleaning up corners. My chisels are standard bench ones and have rather high sides which make it impossible to cleanly remove material from corners. I think I need to get some other chisels for dovetails. Would you mind recommending any, please?
My dovetails are small and I find my current 12 and 6 mm chisels to be most useful.

I have a new technique for grinding the lands on my website - I cannot post photos here at this time as FWW want to publish it.

Link: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/ShopMad...eOireNomi.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

Originally Posted by IanW

Some folks even have special sets of mortising chisels, paring chisels, butt chisels and various other types of specialty chisels, but you don't need to worry about that sort of foolishness for some time yet.....

Cheers,

What are you saying Ian, that I dont need the multiple sets of bevel edge, firmer, mortice, butt in both western and japanese styles, then the "specialist" or "oddball" chisels?

Originally Posted by Pat

What are you saying Ian, that I dont need the multiple sets of bevel edge, firmer, mortice, butt in both western and japanese styles, then the "specialist" or "oddball" chisels?

Now Pat, since that was a partial list of what's in my tool cupboard, I have to tread very carefully telling someone else what they should or shouldn't have...

I was just sort of warning the OP that chisels can breed in the dark.......

Cheers,

Buy old chisels made in Sheffield, the steel from back in the day seems to stay sharper for longer