Reply To: Sawing dovetails on long boards
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I think it’s best to try and avoid jigs when practising hand tooling techniques, as the use of guides and time taken setting them up tends to negate the reasoning behind opting to use hand tools in the first place. In this instance, guides aren’t truly necessary and you soon get into the swing of sawing dovetails vertically after a few cuts. You can use a piercing/coping saw and lay the stock flat on the bench while cutting the joints seated, or rest the piece on a pair of trestles and cut from above, but a 4′ tall side piece isn’t all that tall when held vertically in a vise for straightforward cutting with a tenon saw. 😉
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As a favour to a friend, I once taught woodwork class one summer to a mixed band of 11-15yr old boy scouts with very little in the form of crafting facilities in their ramshackle hut and had them comfortably cutting dovetails for carpentry tool boxes they were making. They worked from trestle supported bench tops and saw horses. One of those – then – young lads caught the woodworking bug and now works as a finish joiner and apparently still works from the box he made way back then. 🙂 It’s simply a case of having confidence in yourself and your own abilities while freeing yourself up to experiment with various clamping and working methods, because if you want it to happen you’ll find a way. 😉