Hayward's "Woodwork Joints" is the best book I have read on woodworking joints. I bought it about a month ago, and found it extremely instructive. In this month I have learnt more about woodwork joints than I have learnt in the four years before that.

For the past week I have been trying to understand the 5 pages dealing with the bevel dovetail joint. These are some of the most cryptic WW pages I have read. They are full of details, but are rather terse on explanations. However, with repeated reading and a few test cuts I got to the point that I understand the what why and how of this joint.

Being the best of its kind does not make the book perfect. For the bevel dovetail joint Hayward suggest the following design of a shooting board jig:


Basically it is a stop set at the correct angle for cutting the edge. and a matching block that tilts the workpiece.

There are two problems with this design. First two sets are needed. One to cut the left hand edge and the other for the right hand edge. This is a minor issue - it is the same as having to use to different saw settings on the table saw. Furthermore, changing the shape of the tilting block would allow using it upside down, solving the problem. A more important issue is that the design is wrong. Tilting the workpiece changes the stop's effective angle - not good.

My modified design is to tilt the plane instead of the workpiece. Like this:

With this design the stop angle remains correct, and by turning the stop I can handle both edges.
At this stage the tilt board is glued to the shooting board, so, unlike Hayward's design the board cannot be reused. I believe it is relatively easy to overcome this problem.

Photo of the shooting board included attached.