My first dovetail - be gentle, please!

[John Keeton]

Well, it will not go in the Smithsonian for sure, but I am happy with my first attempt. Against the advice of Rob Cosman, and everything I had read, I skipped the recommended saw practice. I should not have rushed. Handling the saw correctly is really the key!! As they say, haste makes waste.

I didn't seem to have as much difficulty with chopping, and did very little paring - only in the bottom and corners of the tail recesses.

I used my Pfeil bench chisels, and they just will not fit in the dovetails without marring the side of the tails. So, I will be looking for two or three dovetail chisels with better side bevels. Wilbur Pan and Mark Singer have given some advice on choices there - the search will begin soon.

Comments and suggestions are welcome - I have thick skin, and take criticism well (lots of practice at hearing it!!) The need for saw practice is obvious, and better dovetail chisels, but the key here seems to be just to do a bunch of them!!

I want to thank Gary Zimmel for his detailed postings, and his encouraging PMs. And, of course, Mark Singer's dovetails are beautiful. To Mike Holden, I am not ready to tackle hundreds of these yet!

Also, there have been several creekers that have posted their efforts and thanks go to all of you - or curses perhaps. As a tailed tool user, this is new ground - and I like it!! The slope is getting slippery, and it appears to be steep!

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Right nice, John. A bit of glue and planed flush and they'll look great.

As for chisels, consider grinding down (I have used a belt sander, coarse grit for the initial shaping) the bevel edge of the Pfeil chisels. If you want to purchase new, consider Blue Sprice.



fwiw, I have used straight-sided firmers for paring out tails. One needs to use a smaller size than might be used with a bevel-edged chisel and angle it through the joint.

Take care, Mike

[Hank Knight]

John, Those look very nice. No need to ask for gentle treatment. There' not much I can see to beat you up about.

[Jim Becker]

Darn nice work, John!

[Doug Shepard]

Looks good to moi.

[willie sobat]

John,

Those look as good or better than mine and I've been doing them by hand for 13 years. I like to produce period reproductions. After looking at lots of old dovetails I have come to the conclusion that the great masters of old didn't care about the looks of their DTs. Great job.

[Rick Erickson]

Holy smokes John - those are great! Mine looked like that after about 10 attempts (following all of Rob Cosman's advice). Cutting a straight line on your pins IS KEY. The tails are easy. I've made several hundred practice straight-line cuts and almost have some consistency down. A few hundred more and I think I will be good to go .

[Alan DuBoff]

Looks very nice John. Keep practicing! If you had a whole set of 8 completed drawers with similar joinery, you'd be set! These look Xlnt for first ones.

[John Keeton]

Thanks guys for the encouraging comments. The camera hides a lot of the flaws. After warming up a bit, I went back out to the shop and tried another set. I am doing tails first, but got them too tight and cracked the tail board.

So, I decided to take the pin board and try to cut another set of tails - this is the result. Turned out fair, but one cut is pretty far off. Let me tell you, cutting tails first is far easier in my vast experience of two sets of dovetails!!

Alan, 8 sets of these sounds like a long way away! But, I will get there eventually. These are certainly not 3.5 minute dovetails

Mike, is that Blue Spruce chisel unaltered? And, what size is that? Really looks like what I need. I have been looking at the Japanese, but I sure like that one!

Rick, I am probably going to go back and do what I should have done first - some saw exercises. That really is the foundation of this method. I have not had to do much paring in the chopped out areas and only a slight bit elsewhere. I think if I can "master the saw" as Cosman says, this will get much easier.

Thanks, again, for all of the encouragement. These did not come without some very contorted facial expressions, and a good deal of murmuring. Unfortunately, a few years ago, I gave up swearing!

[gary Zimmel]

Must of been a good feeling after your shop time today John.

Great job! How does it feel to have the first one in the record books....
Won't be long and you will be smashing them out.
Have you figured out what the first project will be to have hand cut drawers?

You've got to love it when a plan comes together.

Great job again. You should be proud.
Can't wait to see the next ones.

Keep us posted.

How does it feel to be looking down the slope...
I bet I know someone who will have some new toys real soon.


.

[Mike K Wenzloff]

John--yes, those are how the Blue Spruce are shaped from Dave Jeske.

Excellent chisels, as are the new bench chisels which also have very thin edges at the bevel.

Take care, Mike

[Mike K Wenzloff]

Those look good also, John.

Really, glue up a practice corner and plane them flush. I think you'll be even happier with the results.

Take care, Mike

[lowell holmes]

Chris Schwarz did an article about handsaw practice that has helped me

The chips and shavings group had an exercise to see who could saw the thiness shaving cross grain that was interesting and another exercise to see how if we could leave half a knife cut with a saw. I didn't do well on the exercises, but my sawing improved. I recently was able to trim 1/32 off the shoulders of a tenon with a saw.

[John Dykes]

Wow. Well done John....

No really, where are your real first ones!

I would encourage you to take Mike W's advice. Take 60 seconds and glue them up and repair the gaps if you desire (the end grain wedge trick) - then plane them even.

I think you'll find you don't need to practice anymore.... you're ready for a production run. Try it and see!

Check the archive - I wasn't honest enough to post my first attempt!

Warm regards,

[Wilbur Pan]

Looking real good, John! My first dovetails didn't look that good.

For me, the key to avoiding gaps is to remember to leave the line on whatever board you are cutting second, whether you go pins or tails first.