Using hard wood and soft wood together
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Tagged: Hard wood and soft wood
Can you dovetail hard wood and soft wood together. I’ve got some sapele and some pine will they work well together
That’s a very hard wood with a very soft wood, when you are test fitting the sapele will crush the fibers in the pine.
If your joints are great off the saw you can minimise that, although I think it will impact the visual quality of the joint.
Also, l’d give some thought to expansion and contraction, although they will only move a tiny amount it will be two different tiny amounts.
I’d try it with a test joint, then bring it in the house and leave it where the final piece would go and see what happens over a few weeks. That situational movement due to the change of environment will at least give you a guide to any seasonal movement.
Cheers
Darren.
You absolutely can. Simply from an economic standpoint, it can be a good choice. I wouldn’t think twice about doing it. I’ve seen many antique examples of hardwood drawer fronts paired with pine or poplar (technically hardwood) sides and backs.
As Darren mentions repeated test fitting can aesthetically damage the joint, but structurally you shouldn’t have trouble.
Two examples of drawers with half-concealed dovetails, where the sides are basswood and birch, respectively. Functionally there have been no issues with mixing either softer hardwood, though basically everything went to pot with the latter project. Thankfully all the defects are only visible at close-up.