10. A First Look at Dovetails

Different types: through, lapped, mitered, rebated, four-sided, flat, etc; the best angles for hardwood and softwood; the proportions of pins to tails, and how to tell them apart.
Visit www.blackburnbooks.com for books and to sign up for lessons in Woodstock NY.

[@glenn_r_frank_author]

Great info in your videos! I have to also compliment your silent, unnamed camera operator. The camera work, zooming in close when needed and following your work and explanations is excellent! It really adds to the quality of your videos to see what you are doing because of the camerawork!

[@gjbmunc]

Thanks for that!

[@donovancampbell7785]

Please keep the videos coming. They are all wonderful!:)

[@gjbmunc]

Glad you like them!

[@frankagee3157]

Having been doing woodwork over 60 years now I have habitually stayed away from dovetails because I have never been able to do a good one. Just to prove you can teach an old dog new tricks I will try once again. Thanks for the great information in this one and I am looking forward to the next one. I have enjoyed each and every one of your videos. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[@gjbmunc]

You can do it!

[@iamwhoiam4410]

Thanks Graham for your inspirational videos, especially for the ones new to woodworking. I like your old school approaches. I've been cutting dovetails for many years and enjoy taking my time and getting them tight and pretty, and I still chisel out the waste. I really get a good laugh when I see woodworkers trying to figure out how to machine out dovetails and not cut them by hand. Sometimes I think we're losing a lost art of traditional woodworking to expensive machines. I've got all those machines but 80% of my work has always been and will continue to be with hand tools. Keep your videos coming.

[@gjbmunc]

Thanks - I also have machines, but there are definite advantages to also using the handtools.

[@bearshield7138]

very cool
thank you

[@gjbmunc]

Glad you liked it!

[@SugarCreekWoodwright]

Never been able to do a good dovetail, but you just made me rethink and time for a lot of practice. Thank You!

[@gjbmunc]

Glad I could help!

[@kayura77]

Thank you for sharing the awesome tips in the video too!

[@gjbmunc]

You are so welcome!

[@bentontool]

Outstanding review! Thank you...

[@gjbmunc]

Thanks for watching!

[@chiplane3976]

I found that I could get over my fear of dovetails by deliberately making ugly, loose fitting ones. To my surprise, these 'bad' dovetails held the bits of wood together just fine. Additionally, the more I practiced, the more I learned about fixing gaps and avoiding them.I also found out that perfect dovetails are mainly a modern idea. If mine are a little 'gappy' - I tell folks that's just proof of fine, artisanal woodworking ;) Great video Graham - thanks!

[@gjbmunc]

From a practic l point of view you're quite correct; meanwhile, practice will make perfect.

[@1pcfred]

After you get familiar with dovetails you get to know which edges are visible when the joint is closed up. So if you focus on just leaving that tight and cutting the rest of the joint loose for clearance then the joint looks good closed. If the parts you can't see hang up that'll open up what you can see and that'll look bad.

[@athmostafa2462]

For a beginner hand tool guy like me , I like to learn more about dovetails but need practice 😔 , thanks for the video and looking forward to seeing more about dovetails.

[@gjbmunc]

Thanks for watching!

[@sheslop888]

Nice shooting plane!

[@gjbmunc]

Thanks!

[@roman_le]

Thank you for this good video.
For me, the issue is not to make the dovetail but make it with no more than hair-thickness discrepancy...

[@gjbmunc]

One thing that might help is to use a single-bevel marking knife rather than a pencil, and make sure that the ends are as clean and square as possible before laying out the tails and pins. Then it's just careful sawing!

[@vidculjak6467]

HVALA

[@gjbmunc]

You're welcome!

[@ksafyer]

wawww, thanks !

[@gjbmunc]

You're very welcome.

[@martintheron1386]

Four way dovetail,how do you fit the two pieces together?

[@gjbmunc]

Diagonally!

[@salimufari]

I remember seeing a video where t hey made a lot of miters & then strength tests on them. The Hands down winner was the common butted Miter but with a hard wood Spline across the seam. The grain orientation on the spline was a big part of the strength. th-cam.com/video/CE147Ow7RmM/w-d-xo.html

[@gjbmunc]

Yes indeed!

[@transmundanium]

You missed one layout method. I often just use the saw to cut the tails. No lines or marks other than the baseline. No one can generally see all sides of the piece at once so a minor difference isn't noticeable.
This is, however, not a first class way of doing the job.

[@gjbmunc]

Totally agree, as I mentioned somewhere else, if you can't see it, it probably doesn't matter.

[@FrenchFarmhouseDiaries]

Rebate not a rabbi.t rabbit is only used in boat building

[@gjbmunc]

You're quite right, I should learn to talk American English - in England a rebate is only a financial term, 'rabbit' is the British term and comes from the French 'rabbattre' meaning to beat back, whcih is kind of like what a 'rebate' in woodworking does. My apologies, but thanks for watching.

[@1pcfred]

Rabbits run. Rabbets are what Americans call rebates.

[@Swarm509]

@@1pcfred Here in Canada we use them interchangeably depending where you are from. The joys of British heritage and American proximity!

[@1pcfred]

@@Swarm509 the terms are not used much here at all but when they are people can use either. Wood joinery is a fairly esoteric topic in the broader scheme of things.

[@peterchessell28]

He would be sacked if he worked for me you could drive a car through that joint.

[@gjbmunc]

We'll do some proper ones later - it was just a quick look to introduce the subject.

[@JeanClaudePeeters]

Just check some old furniture. They didn't make Instagramtails in those days.