Cutting the Tails
The last installment of this series I showed how I layout the tails. Now it’s time to do some cutting. When cutting Tails first, you really only need to concern about cutting perpendicular across the end of the board. If you can get this perpendicular cut dead on, you have solved most of your problems. The lines for the angle cuts on the tails really are just guides. If the angle is off it’s not a big deal. These cuts will be transferred to the pin board. Some people don’t even mark the lines for the tails, they just eyeball them.

I ganged the two boards together to save on sawing. This is the first time I’ve tried ganging boards together. These boards were only a ½” think each, so the overall thickness wasn’t that great. It worked out pretty well.

I used a fret saw to cut the waste between my tails. It makes pretty quick work of it.

I didn’t take pictures of doing the shoulder cuts and the chisel work needed to clean up the waste cuts. I need to work out a way to easily take pictures, while I have 2 tools in my hands. I’ll work on that and post some updates later.

Tail Transfer
The first step is to clamp the pin board into your vise. A good way to do this is put one of your bench planes on it’s side, and set the top of the pin board flush with the bench plane.

Next move the bench plane back some distance from the pin board, and use it to support your tail board.

Now remember when I talked about the 140-Trick in the layout post, this is where it comes into play. That shallow rabbet I cut with the skewed block plane, allows me to register the tail board precisely and easily on the pin board. If you didn’t use the 140-trick, you would have fuss and fiddle with the alignment of the tail board. I’ve done it both ways, and this trick is really slick. It saves a lot to time and helps the tail board stay put while marking out the pins.

Place a firm amount of pressure on the tail board, as it spans from the pin board and bench plane. Make sure your marking knife stays flat against the sides of the tails. I like several light passes over one heavy one. Several light passes tend not to follow the grain as much as heavy passes.

Cutting the Pins
The first advantage of cutting tails first, is that you only have to worry about the perpendicular cut across the end of the tail board. The angle cut of the tail can be off, without causing any problems. These means you only have straight vertical cuts on your pins.

If you cut pins first. The angle of your pins are transferred to your tail boards. Those angle cuts on the tails have to be dean on, as well you have to make sure your cut across the end of the board dead on (all at the same time). So you have 2 cuts, on the tail board, that have to dead on instead of one. I think the angle cuts on the tails are hardest to master for most people. So way make your life difficult when starting out. Once you think you have mastered the saw, try pins first. I will someday.

What has to be precise for these pin cuts, is splitting that knife line. If you leave too much of the line, you will spend a lot time with the chisel. If you take too much, your joint will be loose. I think learning to split that knife line is easier than learning to cut on two lines and at an angle.

The fret saw was used to cut out the waste between the pins.

I did pretty well on splitting my knife lines, but I did have to do a little clean up with the chisel to get the joint together. One thing I will say about using chisels at this time, keep them sharp. I find a sharp chisel will sit “still” on the wood while you chop. As a chisel dulls it tends to “slip” and not stay in place. When making those last 1 or 2 chops up the gauge line, this can be a big deal. I’ve had my chisel slip into the gauge one chop too soon, and mess up my base line. Keeping my chisels sharp seems to help prevent that.

The Fit
I still have some work to do to improve my skills but over all the joints came out pretty well.

I also need to get a camera that does good close ups. This is the best I can do at the time. There are a few small gaps you can’t really see, but they aren’t too bad over all. You can see that the tails are a little short, this was on purpose but maybe a little more than you need. I will plane the sides down flush when it’s all put together. Next time I will try and make this amount a little less. I will have less planing to do as result.

I said I was going to make 4 of these as Christmas gifts. It doesn’t look like all 4 will be done in time for Christmas. Some will be late Christmas gifts. I hope get into the shop this weekend, but it’s been pretty cold here in Seattle. I only have a small space heater, so we will see how the weather treats me. I’m also playing with a method of cutting the tails on my bandsaw. This might help me get the gifts done quicker, with a little less hand sawing for now.

I finally was able to start on the Silverware Trays this weekend.  The last few weekends have been busy with other activities.  This last weekend was our 11th wedding anniversary and we spent a fun weekend in Leavenworth, Wa.  It’s a fun little Bavarian themed town, not too far from Seattle.  There was this nice little wood merchant there.  Some of the stuff looked handmade, but they didn’t allow us to take any pictures.  So, I don’t have anything to share.  It was still fun to just browse around in the store.
This first post in the Silverware Tray series will go through how I layout my dovetails.  I try to follow Rob Cosman’s style of cutting dovetails.  If you are just starting out learning to cut dovetails, I highly recommend Rob’s DVDs and book.  He goes into great detail, and really inspires you that you can learn this skill.
Like any skill, if you don’t practice it often the quality of your work will vary.  It’s been a little while since I cut some dovetails and I’m also still learning.  This first corner I worked on, come out ok but I really messed up on one of the pins.  You will have to wait to see the final result, until I post the last in this dovetail series.

Prepping the stock
One of the most important things you can do to help you get quality dovetails, is to start out with well prepared stock.  The first thing I did was cut all my pieces to size.  I then used some hand planes to prepare what will be the inside of the tray.  Once the tray is assembled, it will be very difficult to prepare this surface, if not done before hand.  Next to get a box that will fit together properly, the pieces need to be the exact same size.  I prepared the ends of one piece using a shooting board.  Also making sure the ends were square.  Then I took the mating piece and did the same.  Then I laid them on top of each other, and determined which was longer (not by much).  I then just used the shooting board, to remove what was need to make them the same size to each other.  I did this for the sides and ends.

Using the marking gauge
I use a Tite-Mark marking gauge.  I like the micro adjust it has, and it can be adjusted using one hand.  I set my marking gauge to just slightly under the thickness of the boards.  Although in the end, I think I went just a little too far.  Next time, I’ll back that off just a little.  The long sides of my tray will be my tailboards.  The tailboards need to be marked on all 4 side.  The pin boards only need to be marked on the 2 face surfaces.

The 140-Trick
One of the tips Rob gives to help achieve better dovetail, is the “140-Trick”.  I think he said he learned this trick for Alan Peters.  The 140 refers to using the Stanley 140 Skewed Block plane.  This block plane has a skewed plane blade and guide fence.  The skewed blade allows you to plane across the grain, with minimal tearout.  The 140 will be used on the tailboards.  What you do is set the width of cut for the plane, to the exact width of your gauge line.  On the inside face of your tailboard, you take a few passes with the block plane.  This creates a small lip that will make the transferring the tails to the pin board much easier.  I’ll try and explain this further when I get to that stage.  Believe me, it makes transferring the tails so much easier.

Tails or Pins first
There are many opinions on whether to cut pins or tails first.  There really is not right or wrong answer.  Rob gives a good explanation on why he does tails first.  Because Rob was the first person I learned from, I do tails first.  I’ve seen other people like Frank Klausz do pins first.  I would be the last person in the world to say pins first is wrong.  I plan to try pins first someday, but for now I’m sticking with tails first until I think I have this method down.

Using dividers to layout your tails
Here’s another area where there are a lot of opinions, and no right or wrong way.  Some people don’t layout their dovetails at all.  They just eyeball it.  Again, Frank Klausz is an excellent example of this approach.  Some people like the “randomness” of this approach.  It’s something that can’t be reproduced by a machine, so you know they were cut by hand.  I like a little “order” to mine, so Rob’s approach really works for me.
Rob uses 2 dividers to layout his dovetail.  Again, I think he picked this up from Alan Peters too.  One divider is used to set the width of the half pins on the outside of the tailboards.

As you can see I’ve already gone ahead and did all of the layout, so that you can see what I’m talking about.  You use the dividers to make a small mark in the end of the board.  You then use this mark to line up your layout gauge.

The second set of dividers is set to the width of 1 tail and 1 pin.  Showing how you come up with this measurement is a little difficult in pictures.  If you get Rob’s DVD, he shows you how to do it in about 5 minutes.  It’s very slick.


You use the divider to “walk off” the tails, starting on each half pin you laid out with the first dividers.  Once you have these 2 dividers set, you can use them to layout the rest of your boards quickly.
After you have these little marks on your tailboard, you just use any dovetail layout gauge to draw in your lines.  For these tails, I used a 1:8 gauge.  I like the look of that slope at this time.  I don’t put a lot credence in the logic of using one slope for hardwood and another for softwood.  I’m still experimenting, but there have been plenty of people who say it really doesn’t matter.  Just pick something that looks good to you.

3-Minute Dovetails
Just for fun, here are some links of Frank Klausz and Rob Cosman doing their 3 and 3.5 minute dovetails.  Me I think I’m closing in on the 3 hour dovetail ☺.

Frank Klausz
Rob Cosman