Drawer Fit

Re: Drawer Fit

I took the advice about bad time of year for this kind of fit and left a small gap at the top of the drawer. The drawer does push in easily with very modest pressure at a corner using one finger; apparently, this test seems to be a kind of standard.

Eliot, just a thought

I am no expert on hand cut dovetails (I have done two) but your chisels might cut better in pine and redwood if you sharpen them to a very thin angle, even hollow grind them.  If you have one you can experiment on try hollow grinding it to maybe 20 degrees and then sharpen the leading edge on you stones.  A very thin very sharp edge might work better on really soft wood.

Re: Eliot, just a thought

Yes, I know that some fine craftsmen sharpen to a very acute angle for soft woods. Here's the thing, though: I have a set of fantastic Blue Spruce chisels that I recently acquired, and I'm not about to screw around with them.( I was afraid to touch them for a while!)

I do have one chisel that I sharpened to something like 20 degrees  (not one of the BS), but I need a set of chisels to do dovetails. I suppose I could sharpen an entire set of chisels to an acute angle -- say an old Marples set.

Things are going reasonably well with what I have. To the extent that these half blind dovetails are not perfect, it's more a matter of hand/eye coordination while sawing that causes me the most problems. And I am getting better at it.

However, in the name of getting these drawers done in my lifetime,  I will probably set up a kind of semi production system to cut all the dovetail joints with a Keller system on a router table. The drawer fronts won't be blind( unless I glue on a cover panel), but I'll get done!

By the way. the Keller dovetail system is just about foolproof and is the closest thing to hand cutting with a jig.

Re: Eliot, just a thought

I was a bit rushed when I was typing the suggestion and failed to add the suggestion that you might want to try this with some chisels not from your best set.

I personally would cut them with a router and some sort of jig.  I have two, a Stanley one I have had for fifty years and a Leigh Jig.  I have bought and sold several others.  From a functional point of view I think the machine cut ones are fine but am somewhat envious of those who can cut them by hand. Can't you do half blind ones with a Keller Jig?

Re: Eliot, just a thought

Fifty years! I guess you are not a spring chicken. And sorry,no, you can't cut half blind dovetails with a Keller jig.

I can cut them by hand, but it's always difficult for me.

Re: Eliot, just a thought

It’s possible to cut the tails with the Keller jig but the sockets can’t be.  I’ve done it and learned it’s vastly easier to cut both by hand.

Re: Eliot, just a thought

I can see that for aesthetic considerations cutting the tails by hand has its advantages, but it's hard to beat the simplicity of cutting them with a mechanical router bit.

Something I've been thinking about ( and tried once) is to cut the pins first on a Keller jig  --using whatever spacing I want-- transfer the resulting template to the tail board ( just like hand cut), and then cut the tails by hand. Doing it this way has some of the advantages of both methods. You can get a hand cut look with the help of a router.

Re: Drawer Fit

Doesn't anyone want to say how nice it fits?

Re: Drawer Fits sooooo Nice!

Re: Drawer Fits sooooo Nice!

Thank you.