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From the pages of Fine Woodworking Magazine
A Faster Way to Make Half-Blind Dovetails
It might not please purists, but it does speed up the process
by Rob Cosman
I was fortunate to learn how to cut dovetails from one of the best in the craft. In 1987, I spent two weeks as Alan Peter's assistant at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center. After all of that training, I can cut a set of through-dovetails as fast as I can set up a router jig.
But cutting half-blind dovetails is another story. Although there are some tricks to speed up the process using a router, removing the bulk of the waste from between the pins is mostly a slow and tedious process using a chisel. My solution is to start with a thick drawer front and rip a fat, 1/8-in.-thick slab off the front. I do this while the drawer front is still oversize in width and length. Then I plane both pieces and set aside the 1/8-in. piece. After that, I cut regular through-dovetails -- front and back -- and assemble the through-dovetailed drawer. Once the drawer is together, I simply laminate the 1/8-in.-thick piece back onto the drawer front. After trimming the front piece flush on all four sides, I have (from all appearances) a set of perfect half-blind dovetails.
Another advantage of this approach is that I can rip a set of drawer fronts in sequential order from one thick board, resulting in a nicely matched flitch pattern on the fronts of all of the drawers.
Rob Cosman lives in Grand Bay, N.B., Canada.
Drawing: Jim Richey
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Joinery, Shaping & Milling
Articles from Fine Woodworking on milling lumber straight, flat, and square; creating curves through bending, laminating and coopering; and developing techniques for routing a wide range of complex shapes and joints
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