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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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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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elegant work, edge, and great combinations of wood types.
krenov did quite a bit of irregular dovetailing in drawer work, not sure why. you're obviously doing it for strength--never saw it done that way before and those drawers will last until the next ice age.
i don't think murcy has anything to apologize about, however, except maybe spoiling that baby.
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Delhi Dog
climber
Good Question...
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Wonderful work and really cool thread!!
"Is that a bidi in the abalone shell? (details are important.)" I was wondering the same thing:-) But sage is good.
What is it about NH and fine woodworkers?
My buddy in Upstate NY is a woodworker too and like yours edge it is just beautiful art work.
So glad the craft continues.
Cheers,
DD
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klk
Trad climber
cali
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nice work.
and nice tr.
part of the transition out of rc, eh? the next step would be the big move out west. heh.
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WBraun
climber
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Thanks edge for the dovetails, I loved it.
We need more "how to do it threads" instead of all the useless blather normally here.
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 3, 2010 - 10:29am PT
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Lovegasoline wrote:
Post some more pics of your work.
Here is my el cheapo website link. $3/month through Intuit. Keep in mind that I only put it up on the off chance that it might help some people find me. 90% of my work is word of mouth (the best advertising) and when one project could take anywhere from 100-900 hours, I don't need a huge pipeline to stay busy.
All of the pics are clickable for larger views.
http://loransmithwoodworking.com/index.html
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 3, 2010 - 10:32am PT
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klk wrote:
part of the transition out of rc, eh? the next step would be the big move out west. heh.
We have had our house on the market for a total of about 10 months with virtually no interest, so we dropped the price a tiny bit. All of a sudden we have had three serious viewings in the last week. Keeping my fingers crossed!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Edge,
You have come up with a witty way to make life more difficult; tapered
drawer sides, indeed! How old is that Paragon plane? Does the GW on it
stand for George Washington? :-)
Beautiful work and a nice tutorial.
I gotta get to work designing a 9' x 3'-6" x 8/4 White Oak dining table.
My back is already hurting at the thought of dealing with it. :-(
ps
Survival,
That's some nice chainsaw work!
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tom woods
Gym climber
Bishop, CA
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It's a little late in the conversation, but Tony Bird- when you said it was all pegs and I saw the shingles- that was my first question.
I don't see why it couldn't be done, but I'd think it was over kill. Unless I was paid by the hour.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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it's worship, tom--you're expecting more than hourly payment.
one reference speaks of tarred shingles--wouldn't be hard to stick 'em with wooden pegs and tar, i guess. i'd build the peg right into the shingle, easy to do with my makita grinder. :-)
here's a good link on the history--not many left, and the wisconsin example seems to be a copy. those dragon heads supposedly hark back to the vikings:
http://www.fillmorecountyjournal.com/Main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=9&ArticleID=56
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Excellent thread! I started to get into woodworking. Bought some gear, made a bookshelf that is pretty sweet, but nothing like some of the work y'all have done.
Fun stuff for sure.
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Dick Erb
climber
June Lake, CA
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I find it interesting that a relatively high percentage of climbers are into woodworking. I do so much production work that is is nice sometimes to just slow down and spend whatever time it takes, getting totally absorbed in every little detail. Relaxing and gratifying.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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i like 'em, dick--more alternatives to mitered corners.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Wood is such a limitless and sexy material!
Dick- You certainly have a woodworkers disposition. Nice work! It is fun to wander away from uniform and substantially flawless...
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Beautiful work Edge and Tony and Steve and Erb and all...............and Survival with your chainsaw!
Amazing, how for many of us climbing has dovetailed into so many other directions in life.
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Love is in the details...not the Devil! LOL
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Zander
Trad climber
Berkeley
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This is a great thread Edge,
Thanks guys for all the other pics. Good stuff.
Here's something that is kind of dovetails meet Dr. Suess.
Zander
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Edge
Trad climber
New Durham, NH
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 8, 2010 - 09:16am PT
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Great bench, Zander! Way to think "outside the box..."
I accumulated a variety of chisels over the years for different tasks. In the pic below, the top three are for timber frame houses, of which I only did a half dozen or so frames. The bottom three are a sampling of my furniture chisels.
The top slick has a 3 1/4" cutting edge, and the bottom chisel is a hand modified dental pick with a 1/16" edge. All of them are sharp enough to shave with (quite literally, when I am asked to do demonstrations I take a bit of hair off my forearm near the wrist to prove the point.)
I also have a selection of about 40 carving chisels, mostly antique with good, old Sheffield steel. Those are the fun ones to sharpen, but at least I get to use a leather strop on those for touching up the edge between honings.
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healyje
Trad climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jan 17, 2017 - 11:00am PT
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Thanks for the link Edge! Looked at your website as well - intimidating. I guess the part I find most intimidating about woodworking is that it's like free-soloing; so much work and so many distinct operations in making a piece of furniture and it only takes one f*#k-up to ruin the whole thing so it's dicey and nail-biting right to the very end.
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Studly
Trad climber
WA
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Jan 17, 2017 - 11:02am PT
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Not really. The one thing about wood working is you can always fix your mistakes.
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roy
Social climber
NZ -> SB,CA -> Zurich
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Jan 17, 2017 - 11:26am PT
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This is beautiful work. Excellent craftsmanship from people who really care.
Cheers, Roy
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