Quote Originally Posted by Brian Holcombe View Post
I will make an objection to the over-cutting. The goal of joinery is to provide integrity.

The dovetail holds due to an interlocking fit between tails and pins, everyone knows this. The dovetail joint loses its ability to resist pulling apart if you severe the ties between socket and pin. The pins are now reliant upon their connection between the top of the pin and the socket, which in a pin is the thinnest part.

IMO, it needlessly weakens the joint, and increases its reliance upon the glue connection between the pin and tail.

We see surviving examples, what we don't see are examples that broke in use and were either replaced or discarded.
When cutting the pin, the overcutting is usually minimal, just enough to release the fibers in the corner. You mostly see these very long overcuts in the socket, where there is plenty of wood around to keep up the integrity of the piece.

Those guys may have been "sloppy", they sure weren't stupid.

And I don't think we can draw any conclusion from the fact that the majority of antique furniture didn't survive. The most important factor was changing fashion.