Re: Handcut dovetail workshop - December 5 - Raleigh
Waiting with baited breath. Tools purchased. (Hopefully Highland Woodworking will get them here in time.)
To Mike and others on their way to the Dec class, I have a few recommendations to make it more fun and successful while working with me and my "pins first" portion of the day.
1. Sharpen your chisels
2. You can bring along your big chisels but you really need the smaller ones for the hand work.
3. Bring along your marking gauge to scribe you lines.
4. Don't forget your favorite mallet. Most folks like to use the mallet that feels good to them and that's a wide range in most classes I have done.
5. If you don't have a dovetail marking gauge, don't worry too much as Phil and I can help there. Phil has some special tools that he will demonstrate as part of his "tails first" demo.
6. Don't forget your saw/saws. In this session, it turns out that I and Phil use the Japanese style saws. They cut on the pull and this makes some folks uncomfortable. If you are happy with your Western push saw, stay with it and bring it along. This will not be a class to debate push or pull.
7. If you are at the point where you need reading glasses to read your watch, don't forget to bring those. I need em'
I will have some smaller boards/pieces of wood to work with on Saturday. If you would like to use up some of your small pieces you have laying around the shop, it's nice to have cleanly planed wood the same thickness when you first get started. There are lots of comments out there about joining soft woods and hard woods. That's good. Most of the drawers you build will have a hardwood face and soft wood sides, back and bottom. Lots of adjustments along the way and practicing with different woods is a good idea.
Hardwood/veneered face with soft pine as the secondary wood. Thumbnail edge that overlaps the opening
This
is known as a Cockbeaded drawer front. Found on most veneered drawer fronts as folks didn't always like the thumbnail edge like above.
The
back of the drawer has a little extra on the sides. This allowed the joiner to adjust the position of the drawer face when doing cockbeads. Shaving a little off the extended sides was commonly practiced to get a good "in plane" front on a piece.
large
dovetailing to build the back legs of a large case.
My recommendation would be to dimension scrap stock down to 1/2 thick x 4"w x 12" long to get started. By going 12 to 18" long, you can chop off an inch if it doesn't work and begin again. A big part of this session will be hands-on instruction and help.
