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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 1, 2010 - 12:20pm PT
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Seems like I cut a lot of dovetails, and 95% of them are by hand. I only use a Leigh router jig for kitchen cabinets, but fine furniture requires a more Zen-like approach.
Marking the sides with the cabinetmaker's triangle. The front and back get a similar mark.
The marking guage lays out the shoulders.
I lay out the pins with a brass marking tool that I made, then square across the end grain. A pencil is fine for this stage, and I cut both sides at once to save a step.
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2010 - 12:20pm PT
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The "gentleman's" backsaw is an antique that I refiled the teeth on for rip cuts.
A Japanese Dozuki makes the crosscuts.
Then the rest of the waste material is removed with a chisel.
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2010 - 12:21pm PT
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Now the sides are scribed to the front and back with a knife point for accuracy.
Here is my special twist. I then plane a taper in the drawer sides from bottom to top. This way the bottom remains at a full 7/16" for wear and to receive the drawer bottom, and then tapers to 5/16" at the top for a more delicate presentation.
The outsides remain square. Any relationship to the image on my shirt is purely coincidental.
Now I scribe the tapered drawer side profiles onto the front and back.
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2010 - 12:21pm PT
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"Quick, Robin, to the backsaw!"
Now chop out the waste with a chisel and my lignum vitae mallet.
Take the phone off the hook and lock the doors, boys, we're gluing up.
Half blind at the front, through tails at the rear. Note that the pins are only 1/16" at their narrowest in the time honored New England tradition, and I lay out the tails so that they are smaller at the top and bottom and get gradually bigger towards the center. I like the way that looks, and it speaks of hand-work.
The drawer face is visible under the curio cabinet door. I now need to add the glass and some sinuous muntins and detailing suggestive of Art Nouveau style.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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nice work, buddy. were you a student of the late james krenov?
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J. Werlin
Social climber
Cedaredge, CO
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Absolutely brilliant work. Bravo!
Is that a bidi in the abalone shell? (details are important.)
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2010 - 12:52pm PT
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were you a student of the late james krenov?
Not really. I read a couple of his books about 20 years ago, but never really made much in his style. I generally work in the Queen Anne, Chippendale, or Federal styles with an emphasis on the New England masters.
Is that a bidi in the abalone shell?
No, it is white sage. I needed something to counter the effects of 4 cups of strong black coffee prior to picking up the saw, and that was all I had handy...
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Edge, I hate you.
All craftsmen with that skill level should be put into the stockade and left there with no water until you promise not to make things that make me look so bad...
Here are my chainsaw dovetails.
My buddy Will calls it "meatball" carpentry, because I have no tools and no skill!!
Notice the heavy shimming just so I can pretend I'm cool.....
Actually, I dream of doing the kind of fine work you do, but will never invest the money or the time necessary...so Meatball it shall be!!
Thanks for sharing!
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jstan
climber
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Best Trip Report of the year.
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2010 - 02:07pm PT
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My buddy Will calls it "meatball" carpentry, because I have no tools and no skill!!
Survival, for chainsaw work that looks pretty good to me. I've had to do that too on post and beam frames and a lot of the techniques are the same, just on a wee bit bigger scale.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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bombproof corner, survival. is that a pool table?
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apogee
climber
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Very beautiful, inspiring work, Edge. True craftsmanship!
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Brunosafari
Boulder climber
OR
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Beautiful---I'll save it with Guido's sailboat thread.
Survival--that is good chainsaw work!
edit -please remember to post the finished unit if possible!
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Ha ha!!
It wasn't "actually" done with a chainsaw, I was kidding,
But it was definitely done with Meatball saws and chisels, because I wasn't kidding about a lack of quality tools.
I've done some good chainsaw work, but not that nice........
I'm just hatin' on Edge and his amazing work.
The dude is like a surgeon.
It is bombproof though. It's a huge workbench with a laminated top and 300 dowels in it, no screws or nails. I was inspired by my dad because he made so many things with just dowels, it always made me want to do it.
I'll post up a couple pix if I ever get the table top cleaned off....
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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the more you force yourself to do without the hardware, the better you get at joining.
the OP is in new england, at the heart of the fine furniture tradition in the u.s. in california we've had a couple greats, krenov, whom i mentioned, and sam maloof.
my brother mike recently vacationed in door county, wisconsin, and happened to send some pics of another no-hardware tradition, a norwegian stavekirken, a whole church built entirely with joints and pegs:
(don't ask me if the shingling was part of the game.)
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Very nice work, Edge!
All hail the king of joints! I usually do mine with a framing square, clamps and a Bosch 3 horse. Hand work after a fashion but I sure like the results!
Falling front drawer for stacked dishes.
Partially concealed frame dovetail on hollow back benchseat.
Dovetails even dress up fir nicely!
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Scole
Trad climber
San Diego
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murcy
climber
sanfrancisco
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Awesome work, Edge and folks. I really like the process shots.
Did this 17 years ago to serve as a diaper table. Never quite finished the cabinet, as the kid was born before drawers, doors, etc., could be made. I will eventually clean it up and make it a buffet-ish thing. I remember how difficult these dovetails were to get even as close to precise as I managed (which is pretty non-precise, especially compared to you pros).
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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good 100-year-old effort to match grain there--always involves compromise.
here's some dovetailing i did, inspired by a tour of sam maloof's house (rancho cucamonga, now a museum and well worth a visit). sam used it extensively in molding rather than miter joints. i think it's more aesthetic and more effective. he was a great one for displaying the beauty and skill of joinery as part of the appeal of his work.
would someone please call this a falcontail joint?
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 2, 2010 - 01:37pm PT
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Tony Bird, I have never heard that called a falcontail. Usually it is referred to as a box joint. Interesting detail to round over the 90 degree corner.
I used to make alot of boxes from cherry with glue laminated bent handles and corner splines of walnut. The corners were mitered and then run across an 1/8" blade in a jig to create a series of slots for the splines.
Here is another of my tapered side drawers in ash showing a large degree of taper.
Hand cutting dovetails in full 3/4" stock needs a great deal of precision, all stemming from an accurate layout with a knife point. This is a detail of a Shaker inspired miniature tall clock in walnut.
These router cut dovetails on my tiger maple kitchen cabinets pale in comparison. (The carcasses are tiger maple, but the drawers were poplar.)
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