"jtpr" wrote in news:1138024697.718204.184990
@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com:

OK, I have decided to try my hand at dovetails for a jewelry box I am
making for my wife. For some reason I would like to learn to do it by
hand. I have an appropriate saw, but I wanted to use a marking knife
to make the lines. They have one at Lee Valley for $22. Of course,
while on their site, I looked around. Why do I do this???? Anyway,
they have a dovetail cutting aid that sells for about $50, or they have
marking guides for $20 (2, one for hardwood, one for soft), or another
set of guides for $10, not sure yet of the benefits of the more
expensive ones, have to look at that.

My point is, am I silly to be spending money on this stuff? I mean,
for a few dollars more I could get the dovetail jig on sale at Rockler
for $59. I don't do things at a production level though, so do I
really need something like this. Is it really that hard to manually
cut dovetails? From reading it sounds like the holy grail of joinery.

Thanks,
-Jim


It's not that hard, it jsut takes lots of practice to get the idea...if
you can saw to line you can cut dovetails...

There is a pretty good web site with many links about handcut dovtails..
its he
http://home.nj.rr.com/afoust/dovetails.html

or you could just search google for hand cut dovetails...They are nice
joints...but I wouldn't call them the holy grail of joinery...now Twisted
Dovetails...thats a horse of another color.....

Regards

DCH