Handcut dovetail gauge lines question
#31
Here's my deal: show surfaces, no lines.  Other surfaces, maybe lines, maybe not, because ...
  • My eye's ain't that good any more, so I mark prominently (deep).  
  • On the inside of joints, the line is fitted inside the joint so it doesn't show; what, me worry?  
  • Almost all my dovetails with a show face are half-blind, so the pin mark is in end grain and almost invisible.  (I usually highlight with pencil so I can see it clearly)
  • The sides of half-blinds and all aspects of through dovetails are going to be cleaned up with a sharp plane, just as the show faces are.  My lines are often shaved away, sometimes not depending on how much planing I do.  That is often dictated by the fit of a drawer, for example, where I plane until the drawer fits properly and no more; I don't want it to rattle around.  If the lines on the side of the drawer still show, so be it.  If they don't show, that's nice.  In the end, I'm a lot more concerned by the fit of the drawer than I am about whether those lines show or not, when someone bothers to look at the sides of the drawer - particularly since that may never happen in the life of the piece (until Derek or Brian start poking at my work  
    Big Grin ).  
Now, then, if you don't do it my way, I won't serve you honey for your tea.  
Slap
Fair winds and following seas,
Jim Waldron
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#32
(08-29-2018, 01:35 PM)Jim Waldron Wrote: Now, then, if you don't do it my way, I won't serve you honey for your tea.  
Slap

Thanks for sharing your way.

Be careful here, as some may attack you as they did Paul Sellers or even Krenov for their "My way or the highway" attitude!
Winkgrin
Tongue

Simon
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#33
No right or wrong its simply a matter of choice.

If you are looking to imitate an antique, I would leave them, as most of the time they were left.

It all boils down to how deep you want to scribe.  Personally, I like a deep scribe line because it helps me register my chisel better.  For me, this gives me a nice straight chisel cut on the waste areas.

So mine are not planed off simply because I can't without making the drawer too loose.

Memory serves, I'm pretty sure Klauzs planes the lines off. If you make the drawer fit tight, it all works out.
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#34
(08-29-2018, 02:12 PM)Handplanesandmore Wrote: Thanks for sharing your way.

Be careful here, as some may attack you as they did Paul Sellers or even Krenov for their "My way or the highway" attitude!
Winkgrin
Tongue

Simon

Anyone who can't recognize a joke is taking life too seriously. On the other hand, putting me into the penalty box with Sellers and Krenov puts me in very good company.
Fair winds and following seas,
Jim Waldron
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#35
Hmmm....
Rolleyes 
   
Hmmm...
Rolleyes 
   
hmmmm
Confused  
   
YMMV 
   
 Just drawers for a shop storage dresser....
Rolleyes  
   
Merely built to take a beating in the shop...
Cool
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
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#36
(08-30-2018, 05:04 PM)bandit57 Wrote:  Just drawers for a shop storage dresser....
Rolleyes  

Merely built to take a beating in the shop...
Cool

Interesting that you put the pin endgrain on the show faces. Alan Peters, as far as I know, was the first well-known woodworker who did that in some of his dovetail pieces.

Simon
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#37
I may be wrong ( not the first time
Laugh ) but I think the end grain showing up in the drawer fronts is actually....tails?    Pins are on the ends of the drawer fronts...

   
These are on the drawer front of that little three drawer GrandBRAT'S Chest of Drawers....Outside of the drawer front ( show side) is facing up?
   
Then use those pins, to lay out the tails, and saw them.    After the chisel is done...
   
Dry fit the drawer side.  
   
Chisel followed the grain, on a couple spots...Pine can be a bit tricky, somedays...
Rolleyes
Then the other side is dry fitted..
   
Drawer back is housed in a dado.   At least this is better than some metal jig, and a noisey, dust spewing electric router?
Confused
Show me a picture, I'll build a project from that
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#38
(08-31-2018, 01:32 PM)bandit571 Wrote: I may be wrong ( not the first time
Laugh ) but I think the end grain showing up in the drawer fronts is actually....tails?    Pins are on the ends of the drawer fronts...

Yes, they are endgrain on the tails...I meant to say endgrain showing on the pin boards. In most through dovetail presentations, we see the tails on the front face like this: https://www.popularwoodworking.com/wp-co...0_lead.jpg In some Perers' work, the endgrain is on the front.

Simon
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#39
Actually, the endgrain of the tails should be seen on drawer fronts.  Otherwise the joint could fail from pulling the drawer open over a period of years.  You may not have been around when a certain moderator of this forum proudly showed off his new tool cabinet with drawers made as you suggest.  He took a ton of heat about it.  His name rhymes with Lacky's Toy.
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#40
Right, for joinery strength, the tails in a drawer make the sides, but usually a false front is added to cover the endgrain. In effect, it looks like a half lap joint.

I haven't seen the build by that moderator. But I can say there is always more than a traditional way to do things. For example, the Studley Chest (who hasn't seen it?) has the pin boards as the sides, tails as top and bottom. In the traditional thinking, the sides should be made of tails as the joint tension is vertical. No, the chest has not been built according to traditional wisdom. Whoever criticized the "Lacky's Toy" drawer design might also disapprove of the Studley build.

Simon
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