Hand cut dovetails on lipped drawers?

[Martin Shupe]

I have seen lots of books and articles that explain how to do half-blind dovetails. Although I have yet to try them, they are on my list, and I have plenty of references when the time comes.

However, I have never seen any references regarding handcut, half-blind dovetails on drawers with lips. I am referring specifically to Shaker style drawers that have lips on three sides.

How do you cut the pins?

Do you use a saw at all, or just a chisel?

Has anyone here tried this?

Has anyone seen an article in any magazine or book that shows how to do this?

If anyone has tried this, I sure would like some insight and to see some photos of the process.

Thanks,

[Richard Gillespie]

The only time I did it, I angled the saw and cut what I could. The rest was chisel work. I would pick maple to do that in. When using the saw I only cut to the marking gauge line.

Since then I've read the following information:

1) Since it's the inside of the drawer you over cut with the saw past the line.

2) Using an old back saw you sharpen the leading edge like a chisel, insert it into the saw cuts and using a hammer, chisel out the pins perpendicular to the drawer face.

I've yet to try either one of those simply I haven't had reason to.

[Mark Singer]

Martin,
You cut as much as you can w/ a dovetail saw as stated...I have used an old scrapper blade and sharpen it to cut the remaining small, unreachable triangle. Try to find a thinner one than a sandvik. You will mushroom one side when you hit it, Lee Valley has them in different thcknesses. That will complete the pin side cut and clean the rest out with succesive chisel cuts, Then do a trial fit and remove the "shiny" spots(where it was tight) with a chisel. I am glad to see these kinds of questions.. there are many using dovetail jigs of one kind or another and the results and intent are poor. This joint is best cut by hand and everyone can see the difference.

[Alan Turner]

Mark does it the way I do. The only comment I would have is to make sure that you keep the edge of the card scraper dead flat at 90 deg. so that you do not end up splitting the drawer face when you hammer it in. In other words, file it like a scraper is filed, with no point whatsoever. It is like dulling the point of a nail to avoid splitting. Also, if you have to use a good scraper, just take a small piece of hard wood, such as maple, and run a groove for the scraper, and then hit the wood. Saves a bit on scrapers if you don't have a dedicated one. Take the cut in smallish chunks if you see any splitting.
Alan