I wanted to make something really special for my girlfriend for her birthday (today) and I've needed an excuse to finally make a project with hand-cut dovetails for some time, so I decided she would be the first person to get a hand dovetailed project. I've had the tools to do it for some time, my main ones are as follows: LN chisel set, LN dovetail marker, small crown square, crown marking guage, shop made western maple burl mallet, LV holdfast (put a leather pad on the face after this project), and a LN dovetail saw. I've been practicing dovetails off and on for a few months, but the last two small projects I started I kept chopping out the wrong areas and unofficially gave up for a while in frustration. I think by using more expensive wood this time I kept myself from making the same layout errors, I was just more worried and that kept me from taking shortcuts. I made this out of black walnut, it's about 11X6X6 with a drop in tray for smaller jewelry (cutouts made with forstner drill outs).
Here's why I wrote: A few of the dovetails (may not show in the pictures) had noticeable gaps in them, and a few of the others required significant fitting (see wood file in pictures) before they would fit. Do most people cut shy of the line and pare down to it even on really tiny dovetails (as you see in the middle joint)? If so, does cutting from the side tend to cause chip-out and how do you prevent that?
On a less analytical note, she really liked the box, and kept touching the dovetails and saying how nice they looked, even before I told her how much work went into making them, so it was definitely a rewarding experience. I'm greatful that I am able to have good tools to work with, as this was pretty hard even with good stuff, I can't imagine how much harder it must be working with troublesome tools.
One other quick question: What is the most common way of attaching the bottom to a box for completely handmade construction? I routed stopped dadoes for a floating panel in this one, but that would probably be quite a chore with a hand router plane, is there an easier way?
Thanks for reading, hope you liked the project.