Quick review of my Bontz Kerfing tool and Mallet

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I saw this this thread (http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...-this-sans-saw) and thought "holy crap, that could save a bunch of time". So, I ordered a kerfing tool of my own. I ordered one with a hickory handle and a 0.02" plate. First, lets take a look at what I received:

01_Kerfing_saw.jpg 02_Kerfing_saw.jpg

This is pretty robust, as it needs to be if you choose to abuse it as I certainly will. I am really curious how that pretty scroll work ends up on the handle and the plate. Ron, are you using a laser for this? Well, this sure is pretty.

Before I show you how I tested it, I need to mention that this also showed up in the box.... A resin infused mallet. This thing sure is pretty, and I have no idea what the wood is (my bad).

03_Mallet.jpg 04_Mallet.jpg

I usually use a lighter mallet from Wood is Good. I also have a maple carvers mallet that I think is OK, but have usually used the Wood is Good Mallet.

Even though this new mallet is heavier than my wood is good mallet, it certainly did not feel overly heavy while I was using it in the tests I am about to describe. It felt great in my hand. I will admit that this is highly personal, but I liked this thing much more than I expected; it will see regular use in my shop.

Look carefully at this mallet, notice that there is a brass insert through the hole. I had not expected this extra touch. More precisely, I would not have thought about it. Is this a good thing? I don't know, but if feels smooth with no burrs, so it will probably not prematurely chafe and wear the leather strap. Nice touch.

So, how did i test this?

I grabbed some oak. I do not remember if it is white or red, and I don't feel like going downstairs to check (it probably does not matter).

Normally, I setup my Moxon vice and mark everything very carefully. Well, I was in a big hurry (i have lots to do this evening still), but I am really excited about this, so I wanted to test it. So, I made some pencil marks and quickly sawed the tail. I was a bit sloppy on this so there is at least one flaw where I cut along the shoulder.

I used a marking gauge to set the depth of the tail and then the depth on the pin board for a hidden dovetail.

This is where things went from bad to worse. I usually prop things up and carefully mark where to cut the pins, but, since I did not really setup to do this, I simply held this narrow board roughly in place and tried to mark it with my other hand using a pencil. In other words, my marking lines were different than I usually use and they were very sloppy in their creation. But since I just wanted to test the kerfing tool, I did not want to take the time to do it right. Just check functionality.

So, I marked the pin location with a pencil, I dropped a vertical line, then I did a quick cut with a dovetail saw.

I pounded the kerfing saw in three times per side. This is the second one:

05_Kerfing_saw.jpg

I put the kerfing tool in place, then I used the mallet to bang in. This is the third, and final cut position. You can tell that for this cut with my dove tail saw that I over-cut the mark a bit.
06_Kerfing_saw.jpg

This is the other side on the third cut
07_Kerfing_saw.jpg

The process was to hold the tool in place, hit it with the mallet until it was in the correct location. Then lever it out.

I think there is a limit to the number of photos, so, post this, then a continuation.....

[Andrew Pitonyak]

I went ahead and marked bottom of the dovetail, so this is what it looked like before I started chopping out the waste:

08_Dovetail.jpg 09_Dovetail.jpg

Normally, I would spend a bunch of time chopping and dealing with the sides since the cut does not go from top to bottom. I sometimes use my hand drill and just drill out a bunch of waste and go from there. That works pretty well, but this time, I chose to chop down from the top after scoring along the depth of the cut. I think that some people do this scoring along the back of the blind dovetail, I will probably try that later. This is what things looked like after I did this.

10_Dovetail.jpg

A couple of things to mention about this.

First, I have never cut a half blind dovetail so fast in my life. Obviously I will see no speed advantage while I am cutting my tails, but I don't usually use half blind dovetails just because it has historically taken me so long to cut these pins. Well, this was really fast even without drilling. Derek thinks that having something shaped more like a chisel may be a better design. I might test that sometime, but, since this kerfing tool works so well, i am not likely to take the time to create another tool myself. I mean I might be able to do it, but it is not in my current skill set.

second, This is before I have done anything to attempt to fit or to even check if it looks like the sides or bottom are correct. So, as a quick final test, I dropped my tail into that hole to see how it looks. Remembering how sloppy I was marking this, I did not expect to see this:

11_Dovetail.jpg

See that top shoulder, told you it was a sloppy cut. But that was my fault and not really related to this test.

So, I need to do a little bit of clean-up in the bottom, and this thing will fit very nicely. It was so obviously an almost perfect fit, that I did not even bother to clean it up to see how things went. I had already demonstrated to my satisfaction that this is indeed the way to cut half blind dovetails. Derick Cohen knew this, Ron Bontz knew this, I did not know this. I have to call this a huge success for me. I am very pleased with the results.

[Rick Malakoff]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and pictures. I really like the tools he makes.

Rick

[Derek Cohen]

Andrew, issues of design aside, Ron makes great tools, and the concept works well.

Regards from Perth

Derek