Dovetail alert – seen at the Woodworking in America conference in St Charles, IL.
Bob Zajicek, of Czeck Edge Hand Tool, will be introducing a new dovetail chisel. This new chisel will feature a tapered and beveled rib, as shown in the prototype in the photo above. The tapered bevel will allow getting into the tighter corners now being used by craftsmen who prefer cutting dovetails with a steep(er) angle, such as 14°. The resin-impregnated handle will remain, a huge plus to chopping without worry of damaging it with a mallet.
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About Al Navas
Al,
Thank you for stopping by our booth at WIA last weekend, it was wonderful seeing Sandy and yourself once again and spending a few minutes talking about our favorite subjects, ww’g and tools! Your photography above looks great(as always) and you have captured our new DT chisel quite well.
It seems like this ‘new’ DT chisel pops up from time to time over the last several months..in various places. Well OK, since early May. I thought I’d take a minute and offer some insight to our development process which will hopefully explain why we’ve had some delays getting this tool into production and to our very loyal customers.
We always field test our tools and of course, this DT chisel is no exception. A good mix of professional ww’rs and several serious hobbyists have been actively using this chisel in their shops since April. Based upon their input, we have had a few kinks to iron out. That task was accomplished and were about ready to begin producing these chiseLs in quantity early last month.
Well, what happened was I thought the performance of the tool could be enhanced considerably if we just ground a slight taper into the blade from the front edge to the back removing about .012″ per side over about 3″ of blade length. Wow, what a difference this made! The tool was immediately almost stick-free when chopping the cross grain waste between tails. It also became much easier to pilot into corners on half blind DTs as well. I thought we really had something here and decided a 6 week or so introductory delay was worth while. I was also tying to finalize the wood type and color at the same time and this contributed a couple of weeks to the delay as well.
Anyhoo, that’s the story behind the delays. I really think the wait is going to be worth it. I am expecting the first batch of blades with this new grind to done by September 4 and the first production models the following week. Introductory pricing will be $50 and the first will be in 1/4″ width. We do have a list and if your readers would like to be added, just drop me a note at bobzajicek1@gmail.com
Thank you again Al,
Cheers, Bob