I know, but that giant bow saw for cutting blind dovetails looks tough
to use. I like the way he follows up and finishes the cut with a broken
off piece of bandsaw blade.. That was cool. I swear everyone seems to
have their own way of cutting dovetails.. I was watching Tim Rosseau
make some on Fine Woodworking.com and he uses templates and the bandsaw
to make the cuts on all but blind dovetails. Some drill out the waist on
the drill table before cleaning out.. There clearly in my mind anyway
is no right way to do it, rather its just what feels right to you.. -Jim

On 1/3/2010 7:21 AM, Larry Jaques wrote:
On Sat, 02 Jan 2010 20:55:45 -0800, the infamous Jim Hall
scrawled the following:

Can I answer that too.. from my perspective..

It definitely is old school in a sense. I'm not sure you can justify
hand cut dovetails from an economic stand point unless you're really
good at it.. I mean once you've got the dovetail jig set up, which can
be a bit of a PITA to do at times, you can bang out dovetail joints
pretty darn fast. A lot faster than I can by hand at this point. I
still use a dovetail jig. I have an old craftsman I bought in 1971 and
a newer Leigh jig. If its drawers for a shop or plywood cabinet I use
the jig.. If its a piece of furniture I want to be a family heirloom,
I'll consider hand cut dovetails first. Hand cut dovetails allow much
more flexibility in the size, shape and location of dovetail joint. I
must say though that probably the average person wouldn't know the
difference. Only those of us building or selling furniture will spot it..

I'm finding myself more and more reaching for hand tools vs power tools
when I have the choice and confidence. Take the dovetail template and
the router.. You know what its like, that incessant screaming sound of
the router, chips and sawdust flying everywhere and then there's that
accidental catch and tear.. If you make them by hand, I think you have
more control and it's quite and peaceful or how bout the belt sander
spewing sawdust around the shop vs a jointer or smoothing plane for
flattening a board. For me, it just makes the whole experience much
more enjoyable and rewarding to use hand tools when I can.

Pick up a copy of Frank Klausz' DVD if you want to learn how to get
good quickly. He really is a master at handcut dovies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-o4jryTkUc the quick versiong
Otherwise, it's "Dovetail a Drawer"
http://fwd4.me/A5J Under $20, delivered to your door!

Frank's The Man.

--
Society is produced by our wants and government by our wickedness.
--Thomas Paine