Soon after getting into hand tools, I wanted to cut a dovetail. It seemed so iconic, so fundamental as joinery. Hand cut dovetails were a mark of skill, accuracy, craft.
Four years later, I have improved moderately in my dovetailing ability. The key? Well, I can tell you it’s not a machine or jig, or expensive specialized tools.
Improvement over time. That’s it. Practice. Here’s proof.
This is the first dovetail I ever cut. It was a struggle. I barely understood the joint itself, I had an extremely cheap and basic toolkit, and virtually no workholding which made it all the more challenging. I used a $15 irwin “dovetail” flush cut saw. It was my first “backsaw” if you can call it that. I also picked up a cheap Irwin coping saw. Not a bad saw – I still use it today! I don’t remember much from the making but I know I was happy simply to see it come together. It’s clearly a little rough and ready but seeing it come together was satisfying for a complete novice.
My second attempt was an effort at making a small dovetailed box. By this stage I had a plane I could use and I guess I had watched a lot more Youtube videos. I think I had a dozuki at this point which made the cutting a lot easier. I think I used the coping saw again, but I can’t remember if I chiselled the recesses. I’m not sure if I used a marking gauge, knife wall, or what, but they came out a little better than the first. Rough for sure, but a little better, and the box actually came together, albeit extremely imperfect.
The next one was practice again. Definitely with the dozuki, and more methodical. I took my time, paid attention to each step, and got quite a clean and snug joint.
After that I wanted to tackle another box, with more joinery – a groove for the lid and rebate for the bottom. This shows a marked improvement, I took my time dimensioning and squaring these pieces, and went slowly on the joinery. Looking back, I would change the proportions but overall the joints are clean and tight.
Time for more boxes. I wanted to use some scrap 2×4 I had and practice resawing, dimensioning, joinery and box making. These took a lot of time. Again I spent plenty of time getting the dimensions and squaring everything up, paying attention to the process and taking my time step by step to get them right. I still like the result here. I like the angles, the sizes, the thinner middle pin.
It had been a while since I cut dovetails and I wanted to try it again. This is my first attempt in hardwood, and I think at this point I had gotten a Veritas carcass saw for my joinery. I used white oak and it was a challenge, mostly because it was unfamiliar. This was a gift so I really wanted to get it right though single dovetails are easier than multiple. They turned out well, I had some gaps to fill which I got creative with and they didn’t turn out bad either. At the same time I ran a groove for the bottom panel which did show on the tails so I plugged that too.
Most recently, I built a matching set of two bedside tables with dovetailed carcasses in red oak. This was the biggest quantity of dovetails so far, and the first time in red oak. I had enough experience at this point to be comfortable with the process. I took my time but worked efficiently. I still made plenty of mistakes but these were from lack of concentration or simple carelessness. 6/8 corners turned out great, they were mostly snug off the saw, I had better tools for marking, measuring, planing, cutting and chopping
Having the right tools to do the job makes a world of difference but at the same time they are useless if you don’t know how to use them. I’m glad I went through the early stages to understand what makes a nice saw, and practice using a bad one, making improvements with that, before using a decent one thereby already having some understanding and skill. I got the cheapest tools I could just to get started so I could weigh up whether it’s worth splashing out, whether a good quality one of these is necessary in my shop.
Something else I’ve learned? Fitting nice dovetails is not the be all and end all. Sure, I’ve gotten better and they look nice in a project but the dovetails are a means, not an end. More important is the projects you’re making, how the dovetails fit in to your pieces and designs, using them appropriately. What I haven’t shown is all the projects in between that didn’t have or need dovetails but still improved my skills in layout, marking, sawing, accuracy, refining. For me this is the real end, crafting quality and hopefully attractive pieces, and improving the craft over time (not just the dovetails).
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