Dovetailing Deep Dive - Cutting the Tail Recesses, Cleaning Up the Bottoms, and Fitting the Joints

Last time we got as far as laying out the pin board.  Here it is with all lines knifed and then penciled in.

Layout complete

I decided to use my Veritas 14 tpi tenon saw to cut the pins.  I've mentioned that this saw hasn't behaved well for me.  But I recently sharpened it and it seems to be cutting much better than after the last time I sharpened it.  There must be a tooth that is set too wide because it seems to catch on the wood about 2/3 into the stroke.  I'll have to look at that later.

Veritas tenon saw

I'm trying to cut just a hair (or a "frog hair", as Ralph would say) on the waste side of the layout line.  I know, I know - it's best practice to cut right to the knife line.  In "The Joiner and Cabinet Maker", Schwarz says he puts a pencil line in his knife line so that the pencil leaves a mark on either side of the knife line.  Then he saws so that just the pencil line on the waste side of the knife line is removed.  Well, I'm just not that good yet.  So I'll saw a little away from the line and use the knife line to pare the side of the pin walls to the right size.

Saw just barely to waste side of line.

After establishing the cut on the top, I angle the saw down to follow the layout lines.

Angling the cut

Then lifting the hand, I level the cut to get to the baseline.

Leveling the cut

After cutting all lines, it's time to remove the waste with the coping saw.  I've learned not to start too low in the existing kerf.

Start the coping cut midway down the kerf

I'm very pleased with how the Knew Concepts saw is cutting the pine.  And how well I'm leveling the cut.  I have the blade angled a little to the left.

One cut made, seven more to go

I make all cuts to the left before going back to the right with the second cut.

All cuts to the left complete

I could keep the saw blade angled to the left and turn the board around to make the second cuts, but I think it's better to saw with the outside of the board facing me.  That way, the ragged part where the saw exits the wood is on the inside of the board.  So I angle the blade to the right.  The Knew Concepts saw had a cam mechanism that loosens and tightens the blade.

Pulling up the cam mechanism to loosen the blade

The blade holder (the lower black piece) swivels to allow the blade angle to change.  It apparently has 8 settings where small "bumps" hit preset holes in the interior of the works.  It's easy to change the angle.

Cam lever up and blade loosened

Then I cut back to the right to remove the rest of the waste.

Blurry pic of cutting back the the right

To clean up the bottoms of the recess, I first "pop" a chisel in the baseline.  I don't think I would do this in hardwood because I'd want to keep the baseline for registering the chisel when chopping the last of the waste.  For this softwood I can't chop on a bench top - this stuff needs to be pared.  Maybe I still should have kept the baselines, but it worked for me this time.

Popping the baseline

Here is a picture of a popped baseline.  Hopefully you can see where wood has been removed.

Popping the baseline leaves smoother wood at the front 

To pare to the baseline, I hold the chisel as shown below.  This way controls somewhat the tendency to blow all the way through to the other side.

Paring to the baseline

But it's hard on the fingers and I ended up wearing a glove.

The designated paring glove

After going almost all the way through, I turn the board around and pare from the other side to finish it off, popping and paring.

Back side

Next it's time to pare the walls.  This is fairly easy as the knife lines guide the cut.

Set the chisel directly into the knife line ...

... and pare down to the bottom

The only thing tricky here is if the wood grain tries to pull the chisel into the pin.  So go carefully.  It's very tempting to try the fit the tail board into the pin board at this time (and I succumbed to the temptation), but it's a better idea to check the sides of the pins for square.

Gap at top - need to pare the lower half of this pin a bit more

With a small combination square it's easy to check the pin walls.  Then pare them down to get a good square side.

Having done that, then it's really time to fit the tail board to the pin board.  One note: when fitting I only work on the pin board, making it fit the tail board.

Pretty god fit - maybe just a little more work

It's not always easy to figure out where the joint is too tight.  But a little tapping with the heel of the hand or a small mallet will help.  Sometimes I make pencil lines on the mating surfaces and check where they are smeared after trying the fit.  In this case I just needed a small amount of additional paring on some of the middle pins and it went together (with a little persuasion).

The fitted joint and the persuader

I'm happy with how this came out.  I haven't cleaned up the joint yet (the pencil lines make it look like there are gaps) but when I do I think it'll look pretty good.  I did all four corners of a box this way and the DTs got better each time.  Still some small gaps, but with some glue I have no doubt that these joints will never come apart.

And so ends this series on dovetailing.  I'm interested in your thoughts, if you care to leave a comment.