http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html Nothing - well, very little - quite matches the buzz of cutting a complex joint by hand and seeing it slot together beautifully. When I trained as a joiner, I couldn’t cut a decent dovetail for love or banoffee pie - so I avoided them wherever possible. I later learned the secrets: decent kit and lots of careful, systematic practice. The latter is a skill in itself as any successful musician will testify - get the practice technique right, and the skills build rapidly. So that’s what I did, and after developing a little more confidence I made some bookends, but it seemed a shame to hide the joint away against a line of books so I wanted an excuse to put the joint to the front and show it off - hence the clocks, of which a significant number have been made and well received as gifts. There are various approaches to hand-dovetailing, including cutting inside the lines with the saw and then using a sharp chisel to pare back precisely. I prefer the ‘sawcut-to-sawcut approach - practise the sawing technique and then just go for it! There’s no room for error on this approach, but the precision comes with practice http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#0 35bd2220-e284-4d4d-b486-739344aed698 http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/03.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/03.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">The first book-ends produced by the new approach. Enlarge the photo as much as you like - there’s no filler in those joints</p></div></div> http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#1 1d6d567e-6db8-414e-918a-c62bb9d6e701 http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/33.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/33.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">Use contrasting timber, and the joint becomes a thing of beauty - too good to hide away</p></div></div> http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#2 955ddd56-68b6-49ce-9166-cb7e4bb1e314 http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/SDC10165.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/SDC10165.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">A thing of beauty deserves a good home</p></div></div> http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#3 94a2dc18-444f-45f1-b47f-6acd7ee7719f http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/32.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/32.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">The trick isn’t to do it once - can it be repeated?</p></div></div> http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#4 d92071e6-8b48-4fbe-b1fb-df195ec4a5b8 http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/SAM_0365.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/SAM_0365.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">A three--tailed version. Obviously, the more tails there are, the greater to chance of a gap somewhere - so this might be a sign of increasing confidence</p></div></div> http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#5 31b6eb99-062e-4dba-8c5f-13f9a656928e http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/SAM_0484.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/SAM_0484.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">I don’t know why I didn’t think of this earlier! We’ve all put the occasional letter or bill behind the clock, so why not make it official!</p></div></div> http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing.html#6 6396d0a7-b1bd-4d06-8725-831c50fdda67 http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/02.jpg?derivative=thumb http://web.me.com/wordsifter/Woodworkingforlove/Dovetailing_files/Media/02.jpg?derivative=micro <div style="padding: 0px; " class="image_cluster_layout_style_default_External_182_132"><div class="image_cluster_layout_style_default"><p style="padding-bottom: 0pt; padding-top: 0pt; " class="Caption">These were my dovetails <span class="style">before</span> I got the kit and the practice right. I’ve put the picture here to encourage others - because if I can make that kind of improvement, anybody can!</p></div></div>