Learning to Make Hand Cut Dovetails

I haven’t been doing too much lately that’s blog-worthy. Partly because I’ve been bitten by the woodworking bug and I’m only in the early learning stages so I don’t have much to show for my time yet. I decided to start off by learning to do dovetail joints. I figured that would require me to practice a number of basic woodworking skills – accurate marking, sawing to a line, chiseling etc.

I was also inspired by watching David Barron’s dovetail videos. Thanks so much for sharing, David! I must have watched the videos a dozen times to try and pick up techniques. I also made a magnetic dovetail guide like the ones which David designed. Check out his fine furniture site and blog.

These are my efforts so far. In the order which they were made (left to right, back to front). Some cut with the guide, some just marked up and cut by hand.

These are the tools that I use (although I didn’t have them all at the start).

….And after 27 practice pieces I was producing consistent enough dovetails to make this little box. For my first woodwork project since high school I’m very happy with how it came out. The wood is recycled New Zealand Rimu, top and bottom are 4mm Okoume Plywood.

That’s all for now. Hopefully I’ll be back soon with more to show.