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(Gary DeWitt) wrote in message . com...
I don't make dovetails, so this may be a dumb question, but in
perusing currently posted linked sites of recent work, I noticed in
looking at some really beautiful dovetail joints the still aparant
marking line along the bottom of the tails. I understand a scored line
is superior to a marked line where the tails are, to guide a chisel
accurately. But why not mark out the angled lines first, or score them
first, and then score only where you will be chiseling, so as to leave
no mark when done? Or mark all the lines first and then score only
where cuts will be? This has long been bugging me, since the first
time I saw the method laid out in pictures, anyone have an idea on
this?

Scored lines are important because you want accuracy in your cuts and
your fit. A pencil line is generally wider than a scribed line, and
is apt to smudging.

If you really want to avoid the look of the lines, then they are easy
enough to sand them out. It's purely a matter of personal preference
whether they are retained. Don't believe the posters who tell you
that leaving them in is a sign of sloppy work or an affectation --
plenty of fine craftsmen leave them in (pick up a copy of FWW and look
at half of the work there, or any work by Chris Becksvoort).

There's some suggestion that a scribe line can be used to "fake-up" a
machine-cut joint to look like it has been handcut. If you've made a
few of these joints by hand, the idea that you might be fooled by a
bunch of uniformly wide pins a scribe line along the bottom is a
little humorous. Even a top of the line machine dovetail jig produces
joints that won't fool a person who's handcut them. Then there are
some aspect to a handcut joint that a machine just cannot do: how are
you going to machine cut a tail that's 1/16" wide at the top? How are
you going to machine cut a compound mitered dovetail?