…to all of you! My new year is going to become an interesting one, I’m quite sure about that. For now, I don’t have much time for woodworking, unfortunately, but that should get better in a few months. Well, maybe, we will see.
This weekend, I finally managed to spend some time in the shop – at temperatures well below zero. Working with steel tools is not really a pleasure when they’re freezing cold. Since I don’t have time for a proper project at the moment, I figured that I could just as well venture my first steps in dovetail land – the result of which you see on the right. (As if you hadn’t already seen first dovetail attempts often enough…)
I’m not completely unhappy with the joint, but without doubt there’s a lot of room for improvement. I’m really puzzled about the size of the gaps – given the amount of force (i.e. the mallet) it took to drive the parts together. I was closely following the tails-first approach, described in detail by Tom Fidgen in his book; at least, I now have kind of an idea about the workflow, and the critical parts in particular.I especially liked the method for laying out the tail spacing and size with a divider, that was easy, fun, and resulted in precise markings.
I’m less happy with the precision of my sawing – but part of it is contributed by my leg vise which I haven’t presented here yet. The board that I used for the vise has warped since I installed it and requires a touch-up with a selection of planes. Consequently, the vise definitely lacks precision and doesn’t grip firmly enough for precise sawing (I can’t even saw precisely enough when the workpiece is properly secured. But that’s a different problem altogether). And there’s definitely some practising to be done with the chiseling…
At least, I got my hands on wood again, and a lot of fun it was, too. So much for now – thanks for reading!
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