Tapered Sliding Dovetails

Hand tools are the way to go for this traditional joint. Tapered sliding dovetails are multipurpose joints traditionally used for drawer dividers, holding legs in place on a pedestal table and [...]

How to Cut Dovetails by Hand

The right techniques and tools (plus a few tricks) will give you a good start on mastering this fine traditional joint. Dovetails have long been recognized as the premier joint for casework and [...]

The Anvil Test

Destroying 10 joints taught us surprising lessons about joint design, wood failure and the tenacity of modern glue. Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the December 2005 [...]

Dovetailed Dustpan

Forget plastic or metal pans – a wooden one looks nicer and works better. Some time during the last 25 years of prowling around workshops, museums and antique stores, I spotted a wooden dustpan. [...]

Blowin’ in the Wind

Blowin’ in the Wind My wife and I ran out of plywood as we were adding shelves to the garage, so we headed to the home center for another sheet. We hadn’t noticed how windy it was until we came [...]

New Hope Blanket Chest

Inspired by traditional Pennsylvania design, this chest is a dovetailer’s delight. I’ll bet that there’s a blanket chest somewhere on your honey-do list. It’s a useful piece that looks great in [...]

Dovetail Starter Notches

Christopher Schwarz once demonstrated a time-honored trick for hand-cutting tenon shoulders. After laying out the joint, he chiseled directly downward onto the shoulder cutline, then made a [...]

Bandsawn Dovetails

Hand-cut appearance with half the fuss. If you’ve labored over hand-cut through dovetails, you’ll be amazed how much faster they can be cut on the bandsaw. You get all the benefits, including [...]

Use Frame Clamps To Aid Dovetail Transfer

I needed a way to secure the tail board on the pin board for marking on a large case project while transferring the layout. So, I used two picture-frame clamps to hold both pieces square and in [...]

Impossible Dovetails

Baffle your friends with perplexing joints Press a dovetailed board into another board with matching sockets, and you’ve created woodworking’s most iconic joint. The dovetails and [...]

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