Thread: ...after a long absence

Hello all,
I have been without internet service for a while but have not stopped composing threads.
Here is one on how I cut dovetails by hand. ( I is italicized as there are as many ways to cut dovetails as there are craftspeople)
The brass and maple guage (home made) is marked with pencil and flipped to mark the layout. Somehow this leads to equadistant marks and two pins on two boards can be cut at one time, (see photos).
I have found it easier to barely start my pin board cuts (I cut pins first) and only after mark down the 90 degree pencil line next to the cut. I find I can see more crearly if I leave a bit of wood between the pencil line and the cut. (see photos)
Since I am probably going to go to Hell anyway (for different reasons) I ease a little wood off of the entry points where the missing wood won't be seen and get no tearout when the time for glue up comes.
Also, if one begins the chop out of the pins and tails too aggresively, one can have discolored wood where the chisle crushed the wood. So, for the first two rounds of chopping out, go real easy.
The boards in these photos are about 3/8th thick and photoed with macro photography.

Please respond if I have rushed this through and you find it unintelligeble.
Sorry about misspellings as I cannot seem to download spellcheck onto this page.