Now this is one fast DoveTail :-)

[Samuel Brooks]

Three-Minute Dovetails with Frank Klausz. I can see how a shop in the 1800's could be productive. I am a powertool junkie and it tooks me 3 minutes to install the router bit before I even start setting up the jig.

http://popularwoodworking.com/klausz

Enjoy,

Sam Brooks

[Keith Starosta]

.....ehh. They looked sloppy to me.


Unreal. It takes a true artist to make something like that look so easy.

- Keith

[Chris Kennedy]

The thing that boggles my mind is that he is can saw so accurately with his eyes so far away! He's standing a good, what 18 or 24 inches back or more, wielding those bow saws and managing to keep to his lines.

Cheers,

Chris

[Tim Thomas]

I wonder why nobody makes that saw blade with the 90 degree bend anymore. After you see how effective that is (especially in the hands of a master) you wonder why it would fall out of fashion. I know there isn't a huge demand for hand tools anymore, but there is certainly some demand. Really cool video. Thanks for posting that.

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

Bow saws are not very common in the American and English tradition, and I doubt you could make a backsaw with that kind of curve. They might still be made somewhere in Hungary or Eastern Europe in general where the bowsaw is still dominant.

That said, damn. He isn't even trying.

[David DeCristoforo]

Frank Klaus is a true master. This stuff "falls out of fashion" because it takes a lifetime of experience to get this good and we are not so patient anymore....

[Don C Peterson]

I wonder why nobody makes that saw blade with the 90 degree bend anymore.

I dunno, I doubt I'd use it even if I had one. In the hands of someone like me, a saw blade like that would probably do more harm than good. I figure it will be at least another decade before I can cut really good DT's with a back saw and chisels, maybe then I'd start to look for ways to speed things up.

[Jake Helmboldt]

In the words of my 2-yr old; "what da heck?"

I'm glad the guy making the video said it for me; you suck Frank. The finesse with such a large saw boggles my mind. There is a clip from one of his videos on you tube (Dovetail a Drawer). The speed at which he works is insane, made even faster by the fact that he does his layout by just eyeballing it.

[Alex Shanku]

In the words of my 2-yr old; "what da heck?"

I'm glad the guy making the video said it for me; you suck Frank. The finesse with such a large saw boggles my mind. There is a clip from one of his videos on you tube (Dovetail a Drawer). The speed at which he works is insane, made even faster by the fact that he does his layout by just eyeballing it.

Yeah. I posted that video a while back. Truly amazing!!!

Here it is again if anyone is interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-o4jryTkUc

[Tom Saurer]

I've got the video where he shows how to do this, "Dovetail a Drawer". The only difference is that he uses chisel to remove the waste and a gents saw to do the cutting. When building a project he says that he estimates 20 minutes to build a drawer, when the stock is already planed to width and jointed.

It's simply amazing. I tried it, but not anywhere close to the results that he got.. I can see how he got so good, because he does it so much. Notice how simple he kept things? No calculating slope. No measuring the distance between dovetails. Everything was by eye.

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

Three-Minute Dovetails with Frank Klausz.

Heh Heh Heh. Watch how his saw magically goes sideways yet he doesn't turn the saw frame.

It's a secret.

[Mike Cutler]

Watching him do it in that video is pretty impressive. Then when you see him do it in person at one of his demo's, while simultaneously answering questions and talking to the audience it's amazing, and quite humbling.

[Mark Singer]

I think he may have done it before a few times

[Greg Cuetara]

I had the pleasure of meeting Frank a few years back at a woodworking expo. I didn't know who he was or his abilities. Not that many people at the expo so it was almost one-on-one. He cranked out a drawer in no time flat. I saw that and said to myself, "that looks easy." So I went home and pulled out my saw and other hand tools. I went on to mess up quite a few boards....I have a lot of respect for that man and what he can do. Most everything he did was by eye....he kept on saying, "no need measure, no need to measure."

[Graham Hughes (CA)]

He cranked out a drawer in no time flat. I saw that and said to myself, "that looks easy."

The thing of it is, it is easy--if you have been doing it for thirty odd years and have the muscle memory to match. I've seen people who make a huge production of it, with sliding bevels, feeler gauges allowing for kerf thickness, and on and on, and as he shows you don't need any of that. Mostly I think you need a lot of practice, which is a real issue for a lot of us (certainly for me).