For yuks, I pulled out the LN dovetail saw, got it started and then took 10 strokes. Then, I did the same with my “do it all” 14″ saw. Then I repeated both. The latter cuts roughly twice as fast. The kerf on the LN saw is slightly more refined, but not by much. The extra speed means you can make bigger mistakes faster. On the other hand, I sometimes think that one gets in trouble by trying to make course corrections while sawing a dovetail rather than accepting what is happening, so being done in a few strokes rather than having a dozen strokes to change my mind and oversteer might be an advantage. I confess to not being the best dovetailer, though.

I think the real reason I dislike dovetail saws is that I have long arms and tend to pull the dovetail saws back too far, even pulling them out of the work or jamming the toe into the work. That’s just clumsiness, but cutting with a short saw feels like walking up stairs that have risers that aren’t tall enough or pedaling a bicycle with too-short cranks, like a kids bike.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Ed.
• This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Ed.