How To Hand Cut Half-Blind Dovetails

Dovetails, the classic drawer joint. Creating half-blind dovetails leaves you with a rock-solid joint that looks beautiful. Here, Logan shows us how he creates this joint using hand tools.
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[@perrych2012]

The cleaning up of the corners (at about 14' 45") made me wince to see his hands holding the wood behind the line of travel of the chisel. I tell my children to never have the chisel travelling towards your hand - put it in a vise.

[@jameskarwacki5802]

Thank You Sir. I have a Leigh DR3 Jig, but wanted to go a step beyond with hand cut.

[@gregshoopman9170]

Thanks several tips I can use

[@bigsparky65]

Excellent video, nice to see handcrafted wood work again. It seems to a lost art.

[@dpmeyer4867]

cool, I like the idea of having your strop right there to 'tune up' the chisel.

[@stevenhealy2554]

If you don’t put an edge on the card scraper the joint is less likely to split during assembly. It does require that you make a few incremental passes when clearing out the rest of the kerf.

[@garypopa6384]

A skew chisel is a valuable tool for cutting half-blind dovetails which can reach deep into the corners. If you don't have a skew chisel a small sharp pen knife will work almost as well. I don't have a magnetic dovetail jig, think $60 is just too much. Instead have used a hard maple scrap block customed cut to the desired angle. A Moxon vise with task lighting are also good tools. Watch Rob Cosman's videos.

[@jeanpierreragequit1726]

25:39 : very nice job... but when ur "queues d'arrondes" are to wide, its a drama.

[@FearsomeWarrior]

For myself I’d call the ‘hammering the card scraper’ trick useful but only as much as I think I can get away with it. I wouldn’t try to get to the full depth at all and would only get a little deeper then the saw cut. I might clear it with a knife a few times too. I think it’d depend completely on the feel I get. Obviously you don’t hammer it even harder when the wood resists.

[@leyderness3553]

Mine comes out looking like you used a hatchet!

[@elabelcreacionesenmadera2687]

hola, soy oscar, de santiago , explicas muy bien pero cuando lo llevas a la practica veo que te falta, sigue practicando ya mejoraras, a mi me lleva años mejorar y todavia no lo logro, tengo 60 años ya , debes insistir. saludos desde santiago.

[@tomterrific8574]

What do you mean when you say that you are "undercutting"?

[@WoodsmithShowandmagazine]

Tom, when I undercut, I'm cutting the surface not at 90 degrees, but 92 degrees. It gives the joint a little room to go together better.