Tuesday, July 22, 2008

My First Dovetail

There are a lot of firsts in life. Your first step, first kiss, first time making love. To be honest, I'd like to forget all my firsts, because I pretty much sucked. But, you deserve full disclosure on my woodworking abilities, or, more accurately, inabilities. So, here is my first dovetail joint. I know, pretty sad. But, believe me, not as sad as some of my other firsts. Thankfully, if you are willing to practice, you will generally get better. I give you my second attempt at the dovetail joint. While it is no where near what I could be proud of, it is better than my first attempt. I hope those of you who are just starting out, will be inspired to know you are not the only person in the world that sucks at this. Everyone had to start somewhere and like all my other firsts, everything that followed has gotten better. I usually walk pretty well now, at least when I'm sober.

10 comments:

Pops said...

It's so much better then my first dove tail. On mine, I couldn't hide the nails and screws holes that were required to hold it together. So good job brother!

Kari Hultman said...

Congratulations!!!!
You improved a huge amount between dovetail one and dovetail two. Keep it up!

Vic Hubbard said...

Kendall (pops),
I'm glad I'm in such great company!

Kari,
I should've said that my first try was also with an old japanese straight handled pull saw and who knows how sharp that was. Since I couldn't find a western style back saw, I went and got a saw made by Sharksaw that has a rigid back and pistol grip. I think I need to try and sneak up on the cut line a bit more. I'm still waiting for you to heal and do a tutorial on dovetails!

Kari Hultman said...

I'll put one together as soon as I can---promise! I use a method that's sort of a sure fire way to cut them.

Anonymous said...

Wow those are ugly but look just like my first attempts too!! My issue is with sawing. I though it was the saw (cheap Japanese pull) so I went and got an expensive one and guess what ... still ugly. The good news, is they are getting better but I really want to try a western style saw. I hear they are more stable when cutting straight lines.

Vic Hubbard said...

Steve,

My second try was with a Japanese pull that has a stiff back. As you can see it was WAY better than my first. I'm gonna try a western style , too. But, my guess is practice will help.

Eric said...

Awesome, dude. Seeing how they improve is one of the main things that drives me when I try them!

Vic Hubbard said...

Thanks Eric,
Hey! Congrats on placing in the Lumberjocks build.

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