I know that answering questions about dove tail's might be getting =
old but I have another one. I have been practicing hand cutting some =
joints at 15*. They seem rather dull. What angle do you folks prefer or =
is it just an " Up to the individual" thing ?
Puff

6 to 10 degrees, lower for hard woods, higher for soft woods.

If you skip the "degrees" thing and just go with triangles
with the base being 1 inch and height from 4 inches to
10 inches you'll get the following angles
1:4 about 14 degrees
1:5 " 11 "
1:6 " 9.5 " ----- soft stuff like pine
1:7 " 8 "
1:8 " 7 " ---- hard stuff like oak
1:9 " 6 "
1:10 " 5 3/4 "
Lay some out on a piece of scrap, pick the
one that looks good to you, set your bevel
gauge to that one and mark away.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:00:13 -0600, "Puff Griffis"
wrote:

I know that answering questions about dove tail's might be getting old but I have another one. I have been practicing hand cutting some joints at 15*. They seem rather dull. What angle do you folks prefer or is it just an " Up to the individual" thing ?

The guy who taught me got me into setting the bevel gauge by eye. I
usually have no idea of the exact angle I'm using.

Barry

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 11:40:56 GMT, Ba r r y
wrote:

The guy who taught me got me into setting the bevel gauge by eye. I
usually have no idea of the exact angle I'm using.

I bought an old workbench a while ago. Obviously home-made, but
well-done work. The top was encrusted with paint spills and allsorts,
so I scraped the whole thing clean again.

Underneath all the mess was revealed a pair of triangles, marked out
with what looked like a knife cut and india ink - one for 1:6
dovetails and one for 1:8. You place your sliding bevel on the bench
and set it off them.

Thank You Charlie. That's useful info for me...

It should be noted from some experimenting yesterday. The thickness
of the stock being used plays a role. On paper I layed out a 1:8
to look at it. If your using 1/4" stock it looks more like a box
joint, on larger stock it looks like a dovetail.

In some case, you may want to use a higher angle to get the look for
cosmetic reasons.

Pat


On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:46:56 -0800, charlie b
wrote:

6 to 10 degrees, lower for hard woods, higher for soft woods.

If you skip the "degrees" thing and just go with triangles
with the base being 1 inch and height from 4 inches to
10 inches you'll get the following angles
1:4 about 14 degrees
1:5 " 11 "
1:6 " 9.5 " ----- soft stuff like pine
1:7 " 8 "
1:8 " 7 " ---- hard stuff like oak
1:9 " 6 "
1:10 " 5 3/4 "
Lay some out on a piece of scrap, pick the
one that looks good to you, set your bevel
gauge to that one and mark away.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 09:58:01 -0500, SawDust
wrote:

In some case, you may want to use a higher angle to get the look for
cosmetic reasons.

I use 1:8 for hardwoods, 1:6 for softwoods.

Some Japanese work uses "dovetail shaped tenons". A chest end might be
made from two flat wide boards, joined by a small number of roughly
square tenons, set in from the edge of the morticed board. For these
I find that 1:5 looks better.

--
Smert' spamionam

Thank you all for your input I will put it to use asap
Puff

"Puff Griffis" wrote in message =
...
I know that answering questions about dove tail's might be getting =
old but I have another one. I have been practicing hand cutting some =
joints at 15*. They seem rather dull. What angle do you folks prefer or =
is it just an " Up to the individual" thing ?
Puff