I took out the router dovetail jig, blew off the dust and made a test joint. After looking at the results (that I used to think looked OK), I packed it up for sale.
My hand-cut dovetail skills are still pretty green. I've had some practice with through dovetails and I can make them reasonably well. I tried a half-blind for the first time this weekend.
I need to make a pair of 2 1/2" high drawers with QS white oak fronts and clear pine sides. The layout I want features 3 tails, 2 3/8" pins and 2 1/4" half pins and a 3/16" web.
The tails are no problem. I'm happy with where I am marking out the pins and sawing the 45 degree cuts. Removing the waste is where I've had some issues. With heavier half pins or softer wood, I can use a card scraper placed in the saw cut to finish the line all the way down. Place an un-sharpened scraper in the cut and whack it with a hammer. Cleaning out the remaining waste from the sockets is pretty easy and fit well.
However, I want to use 1/4" or even 3/16" half pins and oak is hard and brittle. Even with support from a clamp, I'm getting splitting almost every time. The simple answer is to hog everything out with a chisel or maybe drill out some of the waste to speed things up. I've practiced this some as well. Although it's slower, I can do it well enough without breaking anything. FWIW, I don't own any skew or fishtail chisels but I seem to be able to get the corners clean without them.
Is there any other tips I should try for clearing the waste from the sockets? I'm more interested in repeatable quality that speed. I can take as much time as I need