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I swore hand-cut dovetails were a waste of time until a guy at the Boise wood show showed me his 40 minute trick
Last month I tried cutting dovetails by hand for the first time and it took me almost 3 hours to make one drawer corner that still had gaps you could see through. I figured it was just one of those skills that takes years, so I went back to my router jig and didn't think about it again. Then at the Boise wood show a retired cabinet maker watched me complain about it and said "your saw is fighting you, not the wood" and showed me how to score the shoulder line with a knife first. I tried his way on scrap that night and had a tight corner in 40 minutes, gaps and all. Now I'm wondering what else I gave up on too fast, what's the tool or trick that finally made something click for you?
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clairen8527d ago
Watched my buddy fight with a card scraper for two years. Every project he'd get to the finishing stage and the thing would just chatter and burnish the wood instead of cutting. He swore scrapers were useless. Then an old guy at a garage sale told him to roll the burr with a burnisher instead of a file. Took him ten minutes to learn. Now he keeps three scrapers on his bench and reaches for them before sandpaper. Same deal as your saw. The tool wasn't bad, he just never got shown the one step that matters.
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