Old timer told me my dovetails were too perfect and it changed how I cut them

I was at this small cabinet shop in Denver about 4 months back, kind of a shared workspace thing. Some retired guy, been building furniture since the 70s, walked past my bench and looked at the dovetails I was cutting by hand. He said "those look like a machine made them, where's the soul?" At first I was pissed off honestly. I worked hard to get those joints clean and tight. But he pulled me over to his bench and showed me his. They had these tiny gaps here and there, slight unevenness, but you could see every cut was deliberate. He said he leaves a hair of material so the mallet seats it perfect, and the slight irregularity is what makes it obviously hand made and gives it character. So now I back off my lines maybe 1/64th and let the assembly snug it up. My joints actually fit better now because I'm not chasing zero gap all the time, and clients comment on the "hand crafted look" way more. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made them totally rethink their technique?

2 comments

2 Comments

emma7683d ago

Soul" is just what we call sloppy work when we want to charge more.

hannah_williams3d ago

@emma768 gotta disagree a bit. There's this thing in life where chasing perfect actually kills the good parts. Like listening to old records with pops and static - part of the charm.