One of the strongest and most beautiful of joints, the dovetail requires practice and skill to craft properly. Here, you’ll find an unparalleled depth of content on how to lay out, cut, and fit dovetail joints like a master. To help you get started, we’ve selected the most thorough and informative videos and articles from the Fine Woodworking archives, featuring five leading woodworkers.

Chris Gochnour
Gochnour recently completed an online video classroom for us, showing how to construct a Shaker-style wall cabinet containing 12 dovetailed drawers. You can find his lessons on dovetailing at these links:
Introduction to Dovetails
Laying out and Cutting Tails
Laying out and Cutting Pins
Introduction to Half-Blind Dovetails
Completing the Half-Blind joint

Gochnour’s earlier article explains how to mark stock for drawers so that the parts of a dovetail assembly are properly oriented:
Marking System Keeps Track of Parts

Andy Rae
Rae is a veteran woodworker and author who writes the blog Inside Andy’s Shop for FineWoodworking.com. He recently completed these three videos on his techniques for laying out dovetails to ensure that you end up with a drawer that’s flat and square.
Laying Out and Cutting Pins
Laying Out and Cutting Tails
Assembly and Glue-Up

Christian Becksvoort
A longtime FWW contributing editor, Becksvoort has been creating Shaker-inspired furniture for more  than 45 years. He has contributed several articles and videos on dovetail joints, including these:
A Simple Trick for Aligning Pins and Tails
My Favorite Dovetail Tricks
Hand-Cut Dovetails, Accurate and Fast

Gary Rogowski
Another longtime FWW contributing editor, Rogowski is the founder and director of the Northwest Woodworking Studio in Portland, Ore. He also answers questions about all things woodworking in our Ask the Experts forum. He has devised a unique, useful shop exercise that’s especially helpful for cutting dovetails, plus an easy method of layout. You can see them by clicking on these links:
The Five-Minute Dovetail
Easy Dovetail Layout

Philip C. Lowe
An award-winning furniture maker, Lowe was the head of the furniture-making department at the North Bennet Street School, in Boston; he went on to found his own school, the Furniture Institute of Massachusetts. He’s the author of numerous articles in FWW, as well as this video on hand-cut dovetails:
Cutting with a Dovetail Saw

Fine Woodworking Recommended Products

Freud Super Dado Saw Blade Set 8" x 5/8" Bore

Leaves a dado with a flat bottom and even performs excellent on plywood and melamine.

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Suizan Japanese Pull Saw

A versatile saw that can be used for anything from kumiko to dovetails. Mike Pekovich recommends them as a woodworker's first handsaw.

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Olfa Knife

Comfortable plastic handle with a break off blade. A tool for breaking off the blade is built into the handy pocket clip.

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