First dovetails!
Rich Glisson (Durham, NC)
>I made this cutlery tray for my wife for Christmas (finished it on Christmas eve!). I had never done hand-cut dovetails, and true to my pathologic nature decided to start with compound ones. It was quite challenging! The tray is about 14" long and all four sides flare out 22.5 degrees. The wood is 5/16"-thick cherry, resawn from chunks scavenged out of a dumpster at a millwork shop, and it is finished with Formby's low-gloss tung oil. The divider inserts into hand-chopped mortises in the handle. The bottom is nailed to the sides and divider with brass escutcheon nails that I grasped in a pin vise and rubbed on sandpaper to make the heads flat and very thin. I pre-drilled the nail holes in the sides at 22.5 degrees to make sure none of the nails penetrated the surface.
Things I learned: 1. Cherry is brittle! 2. The smaller dovetails are, the more obvious any defect is. I rejected a few corners before obtaining four that I was happy with. BTW, I used a dozuki to make the cuts.
I actually milled up enough pieces to make five trays under the delusion that I could finish them all before Christmas, but only managed to complete this one so far!
