Wedged Dovetails

Re: Wedged Dovetails

dave jeske

>That sounds like a neat extra detail! I hope I remember it when it comes time to make a suitable project.

Dave

Re: Wedged Dovetails *LINK*

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>I'm having problems visualizing this, seems to sound kind of like a fox wedging technique, in which the wedges are inserted before assembly. Do they look like fox wedges (scroll down a page on the link)?

Thanks,

Pam


Fox wedges

Re: Wedged Dovetails

GolfSteve in Calgary

>They're a bit like fox wedges, but not blind. Here's a sketch - the hatched areas are the wedges.

Re: Wedged Dovetails

Scott in Douglassville, PA

>Looks like they tails'd be cut straight (like finger joints), notched, and the wedges (cut to the angle of the sockets) would shape the tail. Neat. Hafta remember that'n...

Re: Wedged Dovetails

GolfSteve in Calgary

>I didn't see any sign of the dovetails being cut that way. There were no cracks at the base of the tails, no gaps, no signs of things being forced, etc.

They looked like perfectly made dovetails, except someone had gone to the extra work of wedging each one.

Re: Wedged Dovetails

Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX

>Very interesting, thanks, Steve. Boy, it would be tough to get them lined up correctly though, would have to be perfect to look good.

Pam

Re: Wedged Dovetails

Moses Yoder in White Pigeon, MI

>The only problem I see with this is the saw does not make a tapered cut, so the end of the wedge would have to be the thickness of the saw cut, or slightly thicker, and then tapered slightly to wedge in tightly. I could see someone with extreme obsessive/compulsive disorders taking the time to do this, and with contrasting wood it could add an extra detail, but not for me :) I think a properly made dovetails will easily last several hundred years without all that extra time spent if it's kept dry.

Maybe the maker didn't

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Have glue. This would certainly get around that problem.

A variation?

mike recchione

>I initially misread this post, thinking that the pins (rather than the tails) were wedged. This would create "double dovetails", mechanically locking the joint in all three dimensions. Has anyone heard of such a joint?

Re: A variation?

Alister

>Some German/PA dutch log cabins used a double splay dovetail joint. be that they are layed up in courses there is no need for a wedge.

That would be interesting laying that out and your idea makes sence.

Norm showed one

Robert Tarr

>NYW showed a very very old antique PA. Dutch Dower chest having the same thing. It was in the same condtion...joints still tight and holding strong....I wonder if it is a Germanic thing.

Robert