On 17/04/2015 8:11 PM, Electric Comet wrote:
On Fri, 17 Apr 2015 19:24:52 -0600
graham wrote:

There's no right way, just tradition. Brits
traditionally cut tails first whereas Europeans cut pins first.

well i only know from watching one of his vids
that's only about doing dovetails

I took classes from a couple of Germans who insisted on pins first. It
was easy when working with pine or spruce and I still have the first box
made that way. I also have the one I tried in red oak as a reminder!

he has an interesting style that's easy for me to follow

In many cases it doesn't matter but when I tried pins first on
some US red oak, it was very difficult to cut precise tails in such
a coarse-grained wood. Matching the pins to "variable" tails would
have been much, much easier.

i did the tails first and it seems without even trying that doing
the pins first would be harder

I can assure you, it would have been.

not sure what kind of oak this is
it is very hard

I think the reason the Brits probably did tails first was that much of
their carcase work was in oak. Furthermore, drawers with blind dovetails
would have necessitated tails first and when you get into a habit.......