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Update: my old boss in Akron bet me $50 I couldn't hand-cut dovetails without a jig
Back when I was 23 and working in a shop off Kenmore Boulevard in Akron, my old boss Ray bet me 50 bucks I couldn't cut a full set of dovetails by hand without a jig. He'd been at it 30 years and kept saying the jig was faster and cleaner, and I figured he was right, so I mostly used the router setup like everyone else there. Well, last weekend I finally built the drawer box for a walnut dresser I've had sitting half done since March, and I cut every pin and tail with a Dozuki saw and a 1/4 inch chisel, no jig, no router. Took me about 2 hours for four corners, which is slow, but the fit was tight enough that I could dry assemble the box and pick it up by one side without it falling apart. First two corners were rough, gaps you could slide a dime into, but by the third I figured out to mark with a knife instead of a pencil and it cleaned right up. Ray was wrong about it being impossible, but he was right that it's slower, and now I kind of get why he pushed the jig on production work. Anybody here still cut dovetails by hand on real jobs, or is that just a weekend thing for you too?
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iris_rivera441d ago
Ha, Ray sounds like my old boss, all talk!
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