11 Sep
Practice should make perfect: Hand-cut dovetails
Posted in Blog, Dovetails, Shop tools by Al (Sandal Woods)The cat’s out of the bag: I have started practicing hand-cut dovetails.
I started my practice sessions with this gent’s saw; in retrospect, I should have practiced starting the cuts with a much lighter touch than I used, as I could see a curve in some of the kerfs as the cut went deeper:
I am certain ignorance on my part played a big role, but I just could not get comfortable with the grip on the gent’s saw. As a result, I ordered an E.T. Roberts & Lee Dorchester 8-inch, 21 ppi rip dovetail saw. As soon as the saw arrived I started practice sessions, cutting parallel lines marked on the end grain of the board:
Problem: At first I was unable to remove the protective coating from the steel - Grr! It turned out that this company uses lacquer on their steel, to minimize the risk of corrosion between manufacture and delivery; a few drops of lacquer thinner removed the coating completely, and made a huge difference in performance! My bad, of course. Isn’t ignorance bliss? I understand that most (?) American manufacturers use a wax coating, which is easily removed with mineral spirits.
As I started using the new saw, it seemed somewhat difficult to get the cut started. My intent was to make practice cuts, targetting 1) a pre-set depth, and 2) perfectly parallel cuts. I noticed, as my practice session got longer and longer, it became much easier to start the cuts. And toward the end of the session I was able to start a cut and finish it in seconds. I have read somewhere that this is normal behavior for this type of saw.
However, I will have to practice a lot more, for I noticed two serious problems:
- I have a tendency to overshoot the depth, and
- I can cut better parallel lines when the saw is tilting to the left, as in the last photo.
Next step: Cutting to a line.
I hope I can get better when cutting with the saw tilting to the right. Practice should make perfect - I hope!
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Mark Mazzo
on September 12 2008
Hey Al,
Hand cut dovetails…cool!
Take this with a grain of salt, because I use a Japanese Dozuki for dovetails but, as far as starting the cut, you may want to see how much set you have in the teeth of your saw. Too much set I think can sometimes make the cut more difficult to start. The set can be removed by lightly rubbing a flat stone along the sides of the teeth…lots of resources on the net about this.
WIth respect to the parallel cuts at an angle, when I cut my tails I actually angle to board in the vise so that the cut is vertical (i.e. perpendicular to the ground)and then just cut straight down. It’s a lot easier to just learn to cut straight without introducing another variable in the mix.
Keep sawing!
–Mark
The Craftsman’s Path
Al (Sandal Woods)
on September 12 2008
Hi, Mark!
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I *know* I read somewhere (The Schwarz?) that most dovetail saws require some “breaking in” before they start the cut much more easily. And that is what I found, after making several dozen cuts.
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I will have to try the angled-board trick, to see if I can get better results getting parallel cuts. I actually tried for about two seconds, and found it very awkward. But I will definitely try it again.
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The set on the teeth is not much - I believe it is in the order of 0.003″, which is quite good. But I will go back and measure it.
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More practice is just what the doctor ordered, Mark. I am trying one thing at a time and sticking with it, to see if I can make progress. Thanks for the encouragement!