Half Blind Dovetails with a Mitered End?

[David Wadstrup]

I've been doing a row of half blind dovetails every day for about 2 weeks now. I've gotten pretty good, and want to take things to the next level -- a mitered end. I haven't been able to turn up much in the way of instruction for this online, but figure they have to be possible. The tricky part, the part I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around, is trying to figure out at what angles each board(of the same thickness) will need to be cut. I imagine this changes depending on the thickness left above the tails on the pin board. Is there a formula to determine this? Does anyone have any words of wisdom, or even basic instruction they'd be able to offer on how to work this kind of joint? I'll take any and all advice!

[Chris Griggs]

Buy this book. Good instruction for mitered corner dovetails, full blind dovetails, and blind miter dovetails.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-D...kelte+dovetail

[Zach Dillinger]

So you are trying to make a full-blind dovetail? Maybe I'm not following you.

[David Wadstrup]

No, not full blind. Half blind with the ends of the boards mitered. Instead of half pins on the ends, half tails are left. These are then mitered on edge.

I thought about doing full blinds, but I don't think I could get the seam to look as clean as I would want it to.

[Derek Cohen]

Chris Schwarz has a nice video here:

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/wo...ulder-dovetail

Regards from Perth

Derek

[David Wadstrup]

Thanks, Chris. I work in a bookstore and just ordered a copy.

Thank, Derek. I saw this, but I think he's putting the miter on a regular dovetail joint, not a half blind. I didn't watch all the way through, though, so may have missed something?

[Zach Dillinger]

David, I guess I'm trying to figure an application where such a joint (half-blind with mitered edge) would be called for. Or this just a "see if you can do it" kind of thing.

[Daniel Rode]

This is a cosmetic treatment more than anything but it does look very nice when done well. Think of a dovetail box or a drawer with half blinds. The joint, from the top, normally looks like a butt joint. With a mitered half blind, the top looks like a miter but the sides still look like a normal dovetail.

David, I guess I'm trying to figure an application where such a joint (half-blind with mitered edge) would be called for. Or this just a "see if you can do it" kind of thing.

[Zach Dillinger]

This is a cosmetic treatment more than anything but it does look very nice when done well. Think of a dovetail box or a drawer with half blinds. The joint, from the top, normally looks like a butt joint. With a mitered half blind, the top looks like a miter but the sides still look like a normal dovetail.

Having cut mitered dovetails many times, I definitely understand how it would look. I just don't understand why one would do it with a half-blind. A mitered dovetail is usually used in a situation where you need to continue a struck-in molding around a case, in which case either a full-blind or a through dovetail would be used, depending on the level of "fancy" required. I have never seen or heard of a mitered half-blind, which is why I wondered why.

[Chris Griggs]

I feel like it's not a joint you typically see on half blind dovetails, but I don't think doing to half blinds would be any different than on through. Either way you are striking a 45 degree line off the inside edge of the baseline, and then cutting to the line and trimming to until the joint closes. On the blind sorta have a little lip at the end of the 45 where the lap hangs over. I don't recall if the Ian Kirby book I referenced demonstrate it on a half blind or just a through. I does demonstrate a mitered corner on full blind double lap dovetails as well as full blind miter dovetails.

[David Wadstrup]

Exactly. It's just cosmetic preference. I'm going for a cleaner mitered look on the edges of the carcase vs the usual, in my opinion less pretty, butt joint look.

Daniel, have you tried this before?

[Chris Griggs]

Zach. Didn't the PWW Editors blog publish a tutorial you did on miter dovetails? A year or two ago I was asking about full blind dovetails (which is when I got the Kirby book recommended to me), and like a week later you did a write-up didn't you?

[Daniel Rode]

I have seen it done but I've never tried it myself. I'm just learning to cut dovetails, so it's well beyond my skillset.

Exactly. It's just cosmetic preference. I'm going for a cleaner mitered look on the edges of the carcase vs the usual, in my opinion less pretty, butt joint look.

Daniel, have you tried this before?

[Zach Dillinger]

Zach. Didn't the PWW Editors blog publish a tutorial you did on miter dovetails? A year or two ago I was asking about full blind dovetails (which is when I got the Kirby book recommended to me), and like a week later you did a write-up didn't you?

Yes, I wrote that up for PWM and I believe you were the reason why I did it at that time.

The joint that the OP describes shouldn't be any different, except that the top mitered tail will have to be left longer than the other tails to achieve the half-blind joint. So, you will have to cut those tails to an even, square length without being able to shoot them (the top tail will be in the way. It is possible but just doesn't seem to be worth the effort to me. If you want a clean look, go with a full-blind. They are ridiculously easy and thoroughly impressive when done. They might even be easier than a good through-dovetail because, unlike a through dt, you have lots of room to hide errors.

If you try it, post pics. I would like to see how it turns out.

[Daniel Rode]

I can think of many places where I'd like to use a mitered half blind dovetail joint. I first saw it done on a book case. In addition to a cleaner look of the miter, it allowed a bead to be cut all the way around the face. It's the difficulty of cutting the joint that put it out of reach for now. Gotta walk before you run...