Dovetail quality discussion
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Does anyone else watch videos on youtube and see other craftsmen spending practically several days on a single dovetailed case? I can cut what I consider good dovetails for a case piece in an afternoon. They’re functional and still look good, but a small gap or 2 does tend be in my finished joint. However, I generally don’t worry about it and move on with making the piece which always ends up beautiful anyway. Part of me thinks they’re crazy for babying a structural joint that much, but another side of me says I’m a lazy craftsman if I don’t put that level of care into the joint. I’m curious if I’m alone in feeling this, or does everyone spend hours/days getting perfect, 100% gap-less dovetails?
I do not spend time making perfect dovetails. I have numerous demands on my time and refuse to sweat the details of every single operation. However, my dovetails are still quite good and I’d compare them favorably to most other craftspersons.
As a general rule, I am an “all precision necessary” woodworker. I would rather have a room full of 90% perfect furniture than a single “flawless” piece. I work the show surfaces to as perfect a state as I think is necessary and have no qualms about leaving plane tracks, torn grain, pencil lines, etc. on secondary surfaces.
Thanks for the reply! I agree a room full of 90% perfect furniture is better than a single perfect piece. I haven’t been woodworking all that long, but about 6 months ago I started sawing directly to my dovetail lines instead of planning to chisel to my lines. As we all know that will speed things up dramatically, but at first this wasn’t as clean as if I had chiseled to the line. Now, my saw lines are as clean as my chisel lines, getting dovetails in half the time. Not sure what my point is besides practice makes perfect, and it has to be better to cut hundreds of 90% perfect dovetails than a dozen perfect dovetails, right?
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