A Fall Front Desk in Walnut

O.k. so my last few blogs have been about other people’s handy work, hand tools and the like and I’m happy to say that I’m back in the wood shop working again on my own projects.
These last few weeks have been busy with life outside of the wood shop so it’ll be great to make some shavings again. I’m working on a new piece that follows in the realm of the ‘hand made modern’ line I’d been designing over the past year. The first was the walnut entertainment cabinet and the second the walnut and aluminum sideboard. This new piece is also made from solid walnut with an interesting take on some through dovetails I’ve been calling a finger tail split… It’s basically a technique where I cut wide through dovetails as per normal procedure and then split each one again with a finger joint. It makes for a unique look but can be a little tricky to execute. The photo shows the main carcass dry fit together with the door panel glued up in the foreground. The upper main carcass is a basic box with a fitted interior secretary incorporating drawers and shelves. The door panel will have bread board face and the cabinet will have a rabbeted back dust panel. The leg frame will really be the component that transforms this piece from a simple dovetailed box and draw it into a more, Mid-Century Modern vein. (at least that’s the plan on paper) Funny how things can change when you start to ‘get into the grain’.
I’ll be posting some more details as I go so stay tuned…
Work really does make life sweet!

The Bow Saw Approach

This post was inspired by Chris Schwarz’ blog this morning dealing with the plus and minus’ of using a Fret saw or a Coping saw for removing the waste between dovetails.
I too have struggled with the thicker blade of the coping saw and the seemingly less than ideal Fret saw market that exists; I have yet to find one I’ve enjoyed using…
‘All you saw makers out there better get your gear on! ‘
Now that said I’ve been using my bow saw for the past few months and will probably never go back to the shorter throw of a Fret saw nor the clumsy feel and lack of decent blades for my Coping saw…
The Gramercy Tools 12″ Bow saw, fitted with it’s finest blade, (it came with three, a fine, medium and heavy) is hard to beat. I challenge anyone who has this saw to tell me what coping or fret saw on the market today does a better job at removing the waste when cutting dovetails. Seriously, I would love to know of a well made Fret saw.
If you don’t already own a bow saw, maybe putting it on your-‘list of tools to buy’ is a good idea, you’ll be surprised at how many times you’ll be reaching for it. So a bow saw…when you get one…more specifically, get this one, try it out for cutting out the waste between dovetails; you won’t be disappointed. It’s a great deal at $139.00…actually I just checked the Tools for Working Wood website and it’s 10% off right now! Geeze, like ‘ol Joel was reading my mind!

This is a shot from two weeks ago; the bow saw on the bench in the background was used to saw out the waste in this difficult,’finger-jointed dovetailed’ cabinet I’m building. Tough to beat indeed…

A Lesson in Hand-Cut Dovetails

This is a small project I made this past winter. A gift for my wife, a school teacher who always sits with a pile of books and papers on her lap, it proved to be a pretty useful gift. Although it looks like a simple enough project, the joinery quickly became a lesson in cutting dovetails by hand.
The piece is a Shaker design I modified slightly in overall dimension. This version seemed to actually fit on my lap better and the angle of the top was adjusted as well. I used Black Walnut for the piece, the main carcass has hand cut through dovetails and sliding dadoes house the inner shelf, dividers and bottom.
The drawer was built in a very traditional way, solid wood for the interior as well as the drawer bottom. I used Butternut for the drawer sides and back with Poplar for the bottom. The top lid has battens on the interior to help keep things in place; I fastened these with Maple dowels down through the top for added strength as well as a visual accent. A fun piece to build it didn’t take up too much time and doesn’t need a whole lot of material. I used a hand rubbed oil finish on the exterior with wax on the inside. You could easily change the dimensions of the piece to suit your size requirements.

Perfectly Executed…Ask yourself why.

“A perfectly executed, hand cut dovetail joint…” Oh yeah? It seems lately when I open up woodworking magazines or watch woodworking video clips everybody is talking about their perfect way to cut dovetails. Half-blinds and hounds tooth, better saws and better jigs. Doesn’t matter if you use a hand saw, band saw or even some cross-cutting sled on your table saw, all you’re going to hear is: “the perfect joint”, “the best way to cut this or make that” perhaps even a “better way” in some one’s eyes. What is perfection but some un-achievable measure of proficiency, skill, or excellence. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m as guilty as the next guy. When I take the time to cut half blind dovetails I want them to be as near perfect as my hands will allow. I’ll use contrasting woods so when you open up a drawer they’ll jump right out at you. Why? Well let’s go further back.
It’s kind of ironic that when we think of some of the greatest craftsmen in today’s society names such as Sam Maloof or James Krenov immediately come to mind. Sam Maloof who takes 4″ metal screws and drives them through his Chair legs to hold them in place. Now look at some of the most famous pieces by Krenov, dowelled together glorified butt joints; and don’t get me started about Norm Abrams techniques…Now before you start sending me hate mail for bashing these great masters of the craft, let me start by saying that I admire them to the outer most limits; I find inspiration in all that they do and have studied anything and everything written on their works. But here lies the irony, today’s young woodworkers are inundated with teachers pushing them towards excellence. No, their isn’t anything wrong with striving towards excellence, but remember to stop every now and then and to ask yourself why. Is Sam Maloof wrong or any less a craftsman for using metal screws in his furniture? Is James Krenov cheapening his work by using a dowel to hold two pieces together instead of some elaborate joint? Go to an antique dealer or walk into a museum and look at the fine examples of hand crafted furniture. Pieces that have stood the tests of time and are the proof we need to justify the joinery in furniture construction. Take a close look at the dovetails if you can find any; in most cases they were covered by mouldings or hidden out of sight from prying consumers eyes. When you look at the joinery in these classic pieces you’ll probably uncover rough cuts with loose fitting cheeks, perhaps the saw lines extend down further than the witness marks; Oh..the horror, I know. When contrasting woods were used it was probably due to a cheaper secondary wood and not for the fashion sense we’re constantly reminded of. Were these craftsmen unskilled? Is it simply coincidence that these pieces are around for you to see a hundred years later? No. These skilled workers in wood simply didn’t feel the dovetail was so much of a design feature as they felt it was the strongest possible joint they could execute for a particular application. In today’s face-paced, fashion world where trends can come and fads can go, the joinery being ‘marketed’ by your favourite wood workers can sometimes feel like that’s all it is. I think its great to practice cutting a joint and honing your skills; making a piece you can truly be proud of. But stop sometimes and ask yourself are you taking the time to cut those half blind dovetails so you can give that chest of drawers to your grand children’s grandchildren, or is it to fetch an extra buck at the craft fair this Sunday?

RECENT COMMENT:
Hey Tom,
I really appreciate your blog, thanks for taking the time……………It was only a couple of months ago, I thought “blog” was a typo.
Well, I’m a novice woodworker and completely relate to your entry, “in the eyes of the beholder”. I’ve read a lot of woodworking articles, books and watched DVDs on dovetails. It always comes back to the same thing, how much time do you want to take? As you know, there is no substitute for time: the more time you spend the more proficient and skilled you become. I am satisfied with learning to cut dovetails by hand because I know my perfect dovetail will take time. Time to develop my own set of techniques and skills …………………I guess some people are just satisfied with the journey and some people need to arrive. For me, the art of working wood is not a means to an end but a quest to learn a skill that satisfies my soul. Could I make a living for my family building period furniture? Probably not but maybe someday I’ll the chance to cross that bridge too. It sure would be nice.

Thanks again,
James

I first purchased the set of five Detail Chisels from Lee Valley Tools a little over a year ago and can say I’ve used them on an almost daily basis ever since. My first impression when they arrived via Mail-order was the size. They’re small, extremely light and almost hobby like. Being used to chopping out mortises and cutting dovetails with heavier European style chisels, I decided to give the Detail Chisels a try and was pleasantly surprised by what I discovered. Using Chisels with only hand force was nothing new to me; however, using chisels designed to be used with only hand force was something new and quite exciting. For cleaning out dovetails and other fine paring style work these small chisels excel. The small size fits comfortably in hand almost like an extension of your fingers slicing and manipulating wood fibers in an effortless fashion. Designed by Yeung Chan, a California cabinetmaker, they have pau ferro octagonal handles and blades of O1 tool steel. The set of five consists of three dovetail-style chisels (bevel-edged to a narrow land on each side), one trimming chisel, and a 1/16″ wide tapered chisel perfect for fine detail work. The chisels can be purchased individually however this set of five handles all of my fine detail work. Another advantage of the set of five is the price, at $ 195.00 this high quality set of hand made chisels is one of the sweetest deals I’ve found.

Before you reach for that dovetail saw there are a few tools that you should think about first. These can make laying out dovetails a whole lot easier in the construction of traditional style drawers. Let’s take a look at some of them.

The very first step when building drawers once you have your stock all milled square, planed and ready to go is to determine where your drawer bottom will go. Instead of taking a pencil and drawing in a line I take my Small Plough Plane by VERITAS and actually cut a shallow groove into the bottom inside pieces I’m using.
This leaves no question as to where my drawer bottom goes and eliminates some room for error. Now that I have my drawer bottom marked in I can take my marking gauge and scribe in the material thickness’. This gets me a little closer to a perfect layout. I use the Tite-Mark Marking Gauge which is unique in having a micrometer adjustment system. Once I scribe the material thickness’ I reach for my Skew Block Plane. I use the Lie-Nielson version which is derived from the Stanley 140 making this next step the famous “140 Trick” I set up the plane to take a shallow cut across the end of my pieces following the depth of the scribe line I had just made with my Marking Gauge. This only takes two or three light passes and establishes a tiny shoulder that will help in my lay-out to cutting perfect dovetails. Once this small shoulder is cut I get my dividers and lay out my dovetails on the drawer side pieces. Cris Gochnour recently wrote a great article in Fine Woodworking about this technique. Now once we finally have our dovetails laid out we can reach for our Dovetail Saw and start cutting. When it comes time to transfer our tails over to the pins that tiny shoulder we cut into the drawer sides will hold our front and back pieces right where we need them. No chance for mistakes by eyeing things down through the tails. So next time you want to make traditional style drawers and reach for a dovetail saw, first think about a few other tools that will make this process more enjoyable and achieve far better results.