On Mar 10, 10:57 pm, "Toller" wrote:
I saw some end tables made by someone I think is a competent woodworker. He
tried to copy antiques, to the point of using draw bottom raised panels
that slide in from the back.

His half blind dovetails were not very good. There were gaps and one of the
pins was partly broken. I don't know anything about hand work, but would
consider them to be terrible if done on my omnijig. Is that considered
acceptable on hand cut dovetails, or on replica antiques?

Phil Lowe gave a presentation to my woodworking club recently. Part
of his career has been to reproduce exactly an antique piece or make a
new piece similar in style to old pieces. And to repair or make
missing pieces on antiques. As research he frequently inspects,
measures, etc. the genuine antique pieces. He commented that you will
see a wide variety of craftsmanship levels on antiques. And it is not
correlated with the niceness or reputation or cost of the original
piece. He said you cannot generalize that inside pieces such as
drawer boxes were made quick and rough while the attention was placed
on the exterior that was on display. He mentioned famous pieces that
were commissioned for high prices back in the day also had pretty
rough pieces on them. On one piece he was fixing by some famous
builder it had some writing on the bottom of one of the drawer
panels. The owner of the antique thought it was signed by the
builder. Something Butler I think and the writing started with "B".
But it turned out the writing was just "Bottom" to indicate the bottom
of the piece. I doubt today anyone would consider leaving "Bottom"
written in white chalk on the non visible pieces of a piece of
furniture they make.

pins was partly broken. I don't know anything about hand work, but would
consider them to be terrible if done on my omnijig.

Could be the lowly paid first year apprentice was the Omnijig in the
shop when he was not cutting wood for the stove.