Exposing your dovetails

6/29/18, 9:29 PM #1

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Exposing your dovetails

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

All my chests of drawers are assembled with dovetailed dividers(blades). I have asked the recipients of these whether they want to see the dovetails and all have said "no", cover them up. A testimony to my dovetails no doubt!

I rip an 1/8" thick strip from the sides before they are planed to thickness. These strips are glued back on for facing on the verticals. Some plain strips are prepared for the horizontal facing.

The over-widthed facing is shaved to match the divider thickness with a block plane and chisel plane for the corners.

The recent rainy and now hot weather has driven me into the shop and much progress has been made.

Re: Exposing your dovetails

6/30/18, 2:53 PM #2

Brian Holcombe
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Re: Exposing your dovetails

Brian Holcombe

I like seeing the dovetails, personally but one of the issues I have with exposed dovetails is that it makes it so that you can’t chamfer the edges of the adjoining boards without needing to make blind chamfers. A spear miter overcomes this nicely.

I’ve moved away from heavily exposed joinery for this reason, I tend to use it only where it does not present issue with detailing.

Re: Exposing your dovetails

6/30/18, 3:24 PM #3

Bill Tindall, E.TN.
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Registered: 9/28/04

there is a bonus

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

The drawer dividers/blades can be made from anything for this wood will not show. In my case they are sappy cherry. Additionally, the grain for the thin strips can be chosen to compliment the appearance, which normally means plain as you can get rift grain.

Exposing your dovetails

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