I can go years between dovetails - so it's often as if I'm learning it again. Here's some of what I did today cutting the half-blind dovetails for the bottom drawer on my cupboard. One nice thing about most 17th century English/New England drawers is that they have exactly one tail and one housing (I've never understood why it's a "pin".) I didn't shoot the layout - so this section starts with just two saw cuts. I don't know why I cut these with the board down on the bench. It was hard to see and uncomfortable too - should have propped the drawer front up vertically. I have one more drawer to go...so I'll get a chance.
two saw cuts is all
Cut chopping the bulk of the waste out it has to be down on the bench. Step one:
freshly sharpened chisels help
And step two:
back & forth
It's always discouraging to make a dovetail that's too loose. But it's easy to go too far the other way & make it too tight. In the case of an oak drawer side and front, that can mean splitting the drawer front. I stood the drawer front up vertically so I could see better and tested the joint.
easy does it
It's so tempting to hit it harder and drive it together. But at this point, the drawer side still had a ways to go and it felt too tight.
tempting...
So I took it back apart & pared the rear edge of the tail -
paring the back of the joint
This way it only gets tight right as the joint is knocked all the way in. This joint below has some layout issues, but the joint is fine. All it will need at assembly is some glue and two wrought nails through the tail into the end of the drawer front.
I wish they were all like this
I took it back apart and planed the rabbet in the drawer front that the drawer bottoms tuck behind.
rabbet plane
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