Some popular hand-tool-advocating woodworker said you have a hundred shitty dovetails in you, so don’t be discouraged if the first one doesn’t come out perfect.
So, I figured I should get started. Yes, I’ve actually never hand cut a dovetail before. When you focus on medieval and Arts & Crafts furniture, you get really good at chopping mortises. But there are near zero calls for dovetails. However, I have some projects coming up that use them, so I thought I would practice some first and knock out a few of my 100 crappy joints.
So this is #1. I plan on doing one whenever I get time, and keeping them as I go, and dating them, so I can chart my progress and speed. This one was really slow, like an hour. But, there was a lot of figuring out the right tools and which vise (the twin-screw Moxon, duh). And it sure helps to color in the knife lines with my 0.3mm pencil.
I’m pretty good at sawing already, but I had to really force myself to leave the line rather than split it, but sawing on the slope was less difficult than I thought it would be.
I figure after a few of these, I’ll rebuild the knocked together drawers I did for the miter saw station. They are kind of chunky because I so suck at nailing, they had to be thick enough to support screws. They started out as scrap wood, so it’s no loss and I can recover the screws which is nice.
By then I should be ready to do these in something that’s not already firewood. Or, I will have convinced myself that they are a needless indulgence and redesign the project to use a proper working joint like mortise and tenon.
