In dovetails in fine furniture I’ve often see craftsmen use very small pins along with large tails, but I don’t ever recall seeing small tails with much larger pins.
Would the reason be aesthetic or structural inadequacy of small tails? It would seem that if small pins are adequate to support the dovetail joint, then small tails also should be adequate to support the joint.
Replies
Just Aesthetic
In his book
http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Dovetail-Furnitures-Signature/dp/0941936678/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334368415&sr=1-1
Ian Kirby very briefly addresses this combination. See page 28.
He says it is very rarely done. He has seen it occasionally on soft wood country made chests. He says " Very small tails simply lack the visual impact of very small pins ".
From the drawing he provides to illustrate this comment I would leave out the "verys" in the sentence. The ones he shows are only smaller; not very small.
Great book by the way. I learned a lot from it and enjoyed reading it.
small tails
Consider, too, how grain directionality plays into the joint-strength equation. It might be easier to chip off a chunk of a small tail. But, the average DT joint doesn't really undergo excessive stress, anyway, so I'd agree that it's mostly a matter of aesthetics.
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