After a few years of hand cutting dovetail joints for everything from my son’s high chair to a padauk and purpleheart dining room table, I somewhat reluctantly bought the Akeda DC-16 with accessory kit. I got a great deal from Woodcrafter’s – was ready to pay their “Best Buy” price of $469.99, available when you buy the jig and the kit – when the owner stepped up to the counter and told me I could have both items for $399 as they’re having a sale in May! Those of you considering this purchase before May may benefit from asking….it couldn’t hurt!
Anyway, the real reason I’m writing (and I’ll try to keep it short) is that I really do love doing the dovetails by hand. The process takes me far away from cell phones, work, the long daily commute and our busy high-tech world. Laying them out by hand, cutting ’em with a dozuki and chiseling out the waste has been extremely labor-intensive of course (I’m no Tage Frid!) but I hardly minded. It was like a meditation, something I could always count on to send me back to the world renewed and refreshed. I’m just a hobbyist, but felt the need to make progress on some backlogged projects for friends and family. I bought the goods this morning and tonight the boxes, unopened, are still sitting by the fireplace.
Of course, I can always do a project by hand when I feel the need, but you know, I kind of feel like I’ve sold out to the seductive pull of ‘easier, better, faster.’ I guess the challenge now is to keep as much art and craft in projects with this new “scientific” process.
I’d be interested to hear similar experiences and feelings from the community, and thanks for reading my ‘rant’!
doveguy99
Replies
doveguy99,
Nope, no absolution...:(
How much for a Jig....$469 ...wow...:)
I come at this question from a different perspective. I think I build really good solid wood furniture but I don't hand-cut my drawer dovetails. Although every other aspect of my work employs traditional construction techniques, joinery and solid wood - even for the backs and drawer bottoms - I always feel that twinge of guilt about not being enough of a "purist" when it comes to the drawer joinery.
I rationalize this by saying that I only have so much time for this craft and I choose to spend it on other aspects of the piece I am designing, building and finishing. The other factor is that I rarely build anything with just one or two drawers and the Leigh jig lets me focus on the things I do well. The prospect of hand cutting 8 or 9 drawers for a dresser is more than I really want to contemplate.
In your case, you know that you can hand cut the joints if you so choose but, bottom line, I don't thing any of us should every feel pressured or guilty because we don't use a any particular technique or product as long as we can honestly say that the end-product - a simple utility cabinet or a fine heirloom piece - meets our objectives and personal standards.
When I retire in a year or so, I plan to take the time to learn to hand-cut my dovetails for those occasions when I have an appropriate, one-off piece and I can take my time. Not because it it is the "right way" to do it but because it is an aspect of the art and the craft that can add a design aspect that can't be otherwise achieved by other techniques.
Enjoy the jig.
Doug
Edited 4/23/2006 10:17 am by DougF
With one exception, I've never talked to a customer who even knew what a dovetailed drawer box looked like - lol.
My customers want a piece (pieces) that meet their specific needs and those are always about size, configuration, functionality, and appearance. Drawers only need to be big enough, work smoothly, and not fall apart.
I'm sure the purists disagree, but when a customer tells me how much they like my work, or one of their friends calls and wants something, I'm calling it "Fine" - lol.
Doug has it aright. Why beat yourself up with guilty feelings about a mere woodworking technique? As a very eloquent letter to FWW some years back put it, Tage Frid and Co are not saints; woodwork is not a religion.
Some woodworkers speak and think as though cabinet making WERE a religion, of course. Perhaps for them it is, inclusive of various catechisms, dogmas, heresies and maybe a secret burning or two of heretics unlucky enough to catch their red little eye. (Beware the knock on the shed door at night).
I once had a friend who got very upset if you didn't eat your pear the "right" way. His wife sent him to the head doctor and now he eats fruit using a variety of interesting methods. A demon has not come to take him away for a spanking.
Less single minded folk, of whom I am one, merely enjoy the woodworking (and many other activities) for the pleasures they give. It's good to learn and good to play, if you're a human. Delivery of a useful item to someone whom it will please is a nice bonus. Often they have no interest in how you made it and will glaze over if you try to tell them.
You can play with modern tools such as dovetail jigs and tablesaws. You can play with old tools, such as chisels and handsaws. Which you choose is only a predeliction, not an indication of your fundamnetal worth as a person or an indication as to whether you will be raised in the Rapture or cast into the Fiery Depths. Of course, some Fundamentalists may sneer or even throw a stone at you. I blow them a particularly fruity raspberry.
Myself, I generally prefer to play with modern things rather than to recreate the distant past. After all, few of us would prefer to drive about in a horse and buggy rather than a motor car. That's not to say that buggy driving can't be fun too. Having retired myself, I have already "done a Doug" and played about making chairs out of greenwood with strange old hand tools. Whilst the experience was good fun, I shan't be selling the TS or the router.
Lataxe
Excellent post. Ahh, the luxury we hobbyists have to do it the way we want. :)My goal is for my work to outlast me. Expect my joinery to get simpler as time goes by.
Doveguy,
I will make it simple for you, unless the hand cut dovetails are cut very accurately they are weaker than machine cut dovetails. I retired last year and have made a hutch, coffee table, bed, end tables, and a chest fo drawers. If I did all that by hand I would still be working on the chest of drawers. You have to do what is relaxing to you, if hand tools are your thing you will have to be happy with lower production. If you derive satisfaction from the look on your daughter's face when you pull up with your trailer and ask your son-in-law to help with the walnut chest of drawers you just made for your precious child then you have to decide what is best for you. I love woodworking almost as much as fishing, but I love seeing the looks on my children faces more.
I handcut dovetails if it is a piece for my wife that she wants to go with some of our antiques, but I machine cut stuff as well. Just have fun and look how much machining Sam Maloof does on his stuff.
Heh, Heh, Heh! Can't pass this one up: here's a "purist's" reply:
Do your woodworking in the way that gets you the most satisfaction and the results you're looking for. After all, this IS a hobby for many (most?) of us posting here. Hobbies are supposed to be FUN, so why get caught up in all that nonsense on what the "right" way to do something, or whether it is sacrilegious to mix hand and power tools and techniques, etc. Who cares??? Did you build a piece that you are proud of? Does it work the way you intended it to (drawers, doors, and such)? Then does it really matter how you got there?
Of course it does. OK, now that I said all the right politically correct things, I must make it perfectly clear that the only proper and correct way to build furniture is the old-fashioned way that has been successfully used for thousands of years, using only HAND TOOLS -- NONE of those evil tailed apprentices. Any other way is simply incorrect and on the verge of sinfulness; not to mention unnecessarily dangerous to hearing, sight, limb, and work shop walls. Now all of you p*w*r tool users get rid of those nasty, loud, obnoxious, electron munchers and get with the program!!!
<<Ducking the incoming thrown rocks, chisels, hammers, chunks of scrap wood, etc. >>
With tongue firmly jammed in cheek, I remain,
A humble hand tool user,
James
Edited 4/24/2006 3:40 pm by pzgren
Edited 4/24/2006 3:42 pm by pzgren
...and thanks for reading my 'rant'!
To be honest with you, this read more like a confession than a rant.
In my opinion you should take it back... It seems to me that you do your woodworking for enjoyment, not for profit. I realize that a backlog exists; but I think you should really examine why you do this and why people want your projects. If you enjoy doing something, why compromise?
This of course is fully from a hobbyist prospective. As a hobbyist you only have yourself to answer to.
Buster
Why do we consistently feel the need to beat ourselves/eachother up over this? I've owned a small furniture business, and now manage a massive shop. I've seen a pretty good spread of craftsmanship and business.
Whether I do work for myself, or for others, I use the methods appropriate to the task at hand. That might mean hand cut dovetails and tenons, or CNC work. 4-1/2 smoother, or widebelt sander. Balance the needs, time, and $$ for the project.
Sure my daughters got hand-cut dovetailed cabinets, but I got nailed butt-joints for my office. And my clients at work get a lot of plastic laminate on masonite (and they love it!) because that fits their specific needs (tradeshows and exhibits).
My mottos:
Have fun/make money. Don't do too much of one, or you won't do enough of the other.
Good/Fast/Cheap - pick two.
Enjoy.The older I get, the better I was....
Doveguy,
Do you read the woodworking magazine that supports this sight? To many (most?) Fine Woodworking is the definitive publication of the craft. Over the years they have run articles on doing joinery by all sorts of methods. As I recall I've read articles on cutting dovetails by hand, using routers, bandsaws, table saws and combination of these. My point is, if it's good enough for the guys who write FWW why should we feel guilty?
This is your hobby; have fun. Enjoy your new gadget.
Chuck
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