Hand Cut Your First Dovetail
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- Опубліковано 7 вер 2024
- Hand Cut Dovetails have this reputation for being difficult and even mysterious. Well sorry to disappoint but they really are not that difficult to cut at all. Moreover, while specialized saws and chisels and such can help speed up the process you really just need any old saw and a chisel or two. So if you want to start hand cutting dovetails don't wait until you have a bunch of dovetail specific tools. Just cut one! In fact cut 3 or 4. You will learn more in cutting those first few joints than you will in pouring over what tools you need and exactly what way to hold them or what time of day to cut them. So here is your guide to cut your very first dovetail...with a $10 saw.
the best tutorial ever, clear slow, and simple instructions.
Hi there, I have just watched your video on" cutting your first dovetail "...Wow..you have explained that so good and it was easy to understand your technique...I have watched plenty of videos on UA-cam, no one,so far has explained the process as clearly as you have. You can have 11 out of ten for that. Thank you very much .
JM from the land down under 😊😊
I appreciate that. Check out handtoolschool.net if you want more of that. I really enjoy teaching hand tool skills and that school has become my passion for the last 13 years.
Without a doubt, this is the FINEST tutorial I've ever seen on cutting dovetails!
You sir, are gifted in teaching.
Thank you! 👍
Very kind of you to say, thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed it
I was waiting to hear you mention that your chisels need to be very sharp. Many beginners probably have chisels like mine used to be -- sharper than a rock, but not a lot. Learning to sharpen my chisels has been a game changer every time I've used them. Off to the shop to try some dovetails today...
Shannon I’ve been enjoying learning from your videos for the past 10 years; between yourself, Chris, and Paul Sellers I’m woodworking at home again not just at the cabinet shop. I’ve found a new love for the craft as a hybrid woodworker and leave all the CNC machines at work. Thanks a bunch!
Good job. Anyone now can do this with little fear.
Shannon, thank you. You really are a gifted teacher. I'm a new woodworker and have seen a ton of dovetail instruction videos from Sellers, Cosman, Katz-Moses, and many others. They're all great but yours made the task seem do-able for a duffer like me. I'm excited to give it a try very soon. Again, thanks!
Excellent your video series is one of my favourite
No, you're my favorite!
This was a very beneficial video for beginners as well as experienced wood workers. Great job.
Just found your video, as I was looking for something on getting started with Dovetails. despite having followed a lot of blogs and reddit's woodworking sub, this was absolutely fantastic and I realize how much I was not thinking about as I've been planning a small project where I wanted to try out dovetails by hand for the first time. I'll be looking into your other videos and really appreciate all the little tidbits of information that you put in there!
Ordered a veritas dovetail saw last week.. been using a gents saw . I even splurged and bought 1:6 marker as well..haha
I've only recently started on my woodworking journy (as a hobby) and tried my first dovetail recently. It wasn't great, but it would of held a drawer together just fine... and this is what I tell people who say they could never do them. Ignore the fancy exposed dovetails you see on social media and realize this is a working joint that is mostly hidden on projects. They don't need to be pretty to work, and you can only improve with practice. So just practice a few times with short boards and then jump into a project using them for drawers or such... by the end of it you will be surprised how much better you are.
Also I find doing practice cuts before doing my dovetails is super helpful. Just a dozen or so cuts at the angles can get the cobwebs out of your system if you only do these joints irregularly so you are not messing up the project joint right away.
Getting right to the point of the matter is just what I needed to hear when I began; I hope this video helps those who are where I was. Hold on to you practice joints and look back on all you’ve learned once in a while; doing so is a great encouragement and is also a lesson in what you’ve learned along the way.
Yeah, I could cut dovetails too if I had a fancy 10 dollar Husky saw ! (Or saw shaped object) 😂
Great tutorial. Its not often I can sit through a lengthy video,no problem with yours sir. Joshua Farnsworth at Wood and Shop released a tutorial the other day on using dovetail saws. Its a good follow up to to this video for those who may be interested.
Thanks for the great video. I was very scared to do dovetails and didn't attempt them until a few weeks ago after gaining more confidence in my sawing and chisel work technique. I had watched other UA-camrs and was really turned off by one (who shall remain nameless) when he stressed that to do dovetails, you had to buy his tools, which are like $275 for a saw. No thank you! I refuse to watch anything if his now. Too much arrogance for my liking. So I watched ones for beginners, Rex K and Paul Sellers. They explained in simple to understand terms, so I went for it. Did a single dovetail multiple times, learning for the mistakes each time.
Now I've watched your. Very good explanation. I really liked the fact that you didn't stress getting the high end tools. Work with what you have or barely afford. My new challenge is going to be doing 3 or 4 dovetails. Then do it multiple times until I very comfortable making them.
Boss. This was one of the best videos to date. It's very inspiring and I thank you for it!
Thank you. Avery well executed tutorial. L actually learned something.
Now I am not afraid of dovetails anymore
Great video! So well executed and encouraging and your energy is infectious! Thank you. You've cured me on my dovetail gun shyness. This Sunday is dovetail day in my workshop 👍 Cheers, Shannon!
Good luck! By my clock Sunday starts in 3 minutes. Get dovetailing!
This would be a good video for my High School woodworking students to see. You and I do this just a little different but the basics are the same. The kids have just finished their first set of hand cut dovetails. They also cut through and half blind tails using the jig and electric router. Many of them preferred doing the work by hand.
I am curious, what do you do differently with your own approach?
@@RenaissanceWW honestly, it is mostly in layout and cutting technique. I have the students use dividers to step off the tail width. When they are removing the last of the wood at the base line I have them keep the board turned 90 degrees so they can see they are chopping square. While I encourage having a set of tails and pins that go together first time a also go through some trouble shooting tight spots etc. I am sure you do too. As I said, we do this pretty much the same, just a little bit different.
Great video,
New to your channel and I'm here to stay...👍🏻🎩
In the process of building my 1st workbench...🤦♂️
when I saw the title and thought about your series about chisel I thought..... is Shannon going to cut dovetails with just chisels!?! 😂
19:20 My favourite part :D
Thank you so much. Great vid, Shannpn!
Confirmed. First box was gappy and rough by the fourth box I was getting happy with the results.
Thanks I'm going to go out to my shop right now and try again Thanks
soooooo how did it go?
@@RenaissanceWW Used the same saw as you and it went better than my previous attempt but still quite messing but am going to try some more after resharpening my chisels as the pine end grain is chippy. At least it went together Thanks for the motivation
although i have cut a whole lot of dovetails i chose not to take your advice to go watch cat videos (or whatever) i always enjoy watching joinery videos from differnt people. quite often there is some little tidbit is every technique that i can pick up and improve my own process. and if i hadnt cut a dovetail before i think this would have been an amazing resource to start me out. by the way @jameswright or @woodbywright sent me to your channel
Great video... Its just a joint go try it!🙂
A method to sharpen the chisels is kinda critical and is not a trivial skill either. Enjoyed the video, however, and got some new ideas to try in my learning process.
Excellent video. Any chance you can do a follow-up with pins first?
Not much different to it other than the transfer but yes I think I can do that
thanks
The most important step is to take the first step!
What’s that giant pencil called and what kind of sharpener did you use on that bad boy
just a normal pencil make a little fatter. Reminds me of the "special" left handed pencils I had in elementary school. Speaking of which I use the same sharpener found on the walls of classrooms for the last century at least. It has that adjustable wheel with different diameter holes.
Very good encouragement video, Shannon. I'm over a few ones, but I believe I'll still be considered being amateur after my hundredth one :)
I have a question about chisels. Are those Narex ones for your starter kit demo? I took your advice on a narrow one the other day, and the one I took is a 3mm wide from the fine series of Narex (I believe from the same series of the ones you use here). I found them very nicely done, compared to the Stanley sortiment I started off with. How far chisels can go in terms of quality?
I'm weird when it comes to chisels and maybe I've just been lucky but I've never had a problem with bad steel or a chisel that was unusable. From 300 year old chisels to modern made I find they all pretty much work well when sharp. There are some handle issues and balance issue with some modern chisels but nothing that rehandling couldn't fix. So on the whole I don't put a lot of emphasis on which chisel you get, but more on sharpening them well and caring for them. Right now my chisel kit is about 15 different brands spanning 300 years of production.
Where did you get lamps seen on your bench in video.
I got them at woodturnerscatalog.com about 10 years ago.
When sharpening your chisels, after you have flattened the backs, what grits do you usually start and finish up with? Do you use the same "finishing up" grit to establish your secondary bevel?
I have a 1000 and 8000 grit stone and a leather strop. That's all I use. I don't do secondary or micro bevels anymore either since switching to free hand sharpening. Stropping and secondary bevels isn't sustainable and it just ended up being extra work for no gain.
@@RenaissanceWW Thanks for your feedback. Have you done a video on how you hold your chisels when hand sharpening? If not, sure wish you could find time to do one.
@@w4baham I have. Several free hand sharpening videos here on my channel
triangle marking good, not being able to see your mark as an example on 1080p bad
I've been chiselling out the waste (in soft wood) and getting a lot of crushed grain in the end grain. I keep sharpening my chisel but it's still crushing it, is that just they way it is going to be when I chisel it out?
Well there is sharp and then there is softwood sharp. No doubt the less dense the wood the sharper the chisel needs to be. But there are some woods (like this Radiata Pine I'm using) that I struggle to eliminate the tearing entirely. Also chopping halfway through does exacerbate the issue when you flip the board and chop into the unsupported space beneath. So in some respects it is the way it is. If you are getting good results in harder woods then I wouldn't worry too much about it.
All I have access to most of the time is spruce (I started woodworking during the pandemic and only cut a couple of dovetails) which I find ridiculously soft, what helped me was chiseling out the first 5 milimeters or so without a mallet only by putting pressure on the chisel near the line, after I have a wall I can rest the back of the chisel on, I continue with faster removal. That helped me a lot and the end grain is smooth now. As for sharpening, my final stone is a 3000 grit japanese water stone, after that i strop the chisel.