Full-blind dovetails: can I do it faster?

[@jasonhammond4640]

I like your mitering jig. I may have to make one for myself. I did this joint this spring as part of a sample box to show prospective clients. All four corners of the sample box is a different dovetail. Of course the irony of a secret dovetail in a sample box is no one sees it. Well to prove there was one in that corner, I cut a shallow arch at 45° to the corner and just deep enough to show the center pin but leaving the outer two pins still hidden. That seemed to work out really good with people and also gives an interesting effect to the piece.

[@Krishna-Govender]

I am drooling at the sharpness of those chisels.

[@GillisBjork]

Trying to stay disciplined with the sharpening!

[@joelhollingsworth2374]

This was so fun to see, and I'm humbled to be mentioned and to have prompted you to try something! You are so gentle in the way you frame things; for future reference, I don't imagine I'd have been very upset even if you'd made a clickbait, conflict-stoking title about what you dislike! My main feeling is that I'm happy you found a few things to try out, and have a broader base of experience partly because of a comment from me (but mostly due to the work you continue to put into joinery and into video production). Looking forward to whatever you do next!

[@GillisBjork]

Thank you so much, glad you liked the experiment! I actually felt this title was a bit clickbait haha, guess I have a lot to learn in that area ;)

[@transmundanium]

Wow, that's a cool experiment. Thank you for delving into the minutiae and following up on our comments.

[@GillisBjork]

Thanks a bunch, glad you liked it!

[@k25beatnik]

Hi Gillis. I’m a relatively new subscriber and would like to say that I’m thoroughly enjoying your videos. Thanks so much for sharing them.

[@1deerndingo]

That was an interesting trial. You could cut down the side walls of the pins by hammering a scraper blade down your line. Rob Cosman uses a tool specifically made for this but old timers just used a scraper blade. It does a good job of cutting the side wall of the pins and makes chop-out sooo much easier.

[@GillisBjork]

Thanks! I have yet to try that method, it always seemed like an unnecessary step to me. But after noticing how much easier the cleanup was with the deeper saw cuts, I'm eager to try it.

[@MikeyDonna]

Gillis I have to agree with Mark “somewhat” in that the beauty of wood jointed perfectly is largely what many think of as something to aspire to perfect. That said , there is some satisfaction to knowing secrets on how to do something and even having done something that no one but you are aware of. If you have ever taken an old piece of furniture apart and wondered who the craftsman was and how did he do that particular thing. Knowing that have you ever wondered if that would ever happen to a piece of your work. Who was this guy, an old man, a kid working as an apprentice, what country did he live in, etc , oh what color was his hair .. great video !!!

[@GillisBjork]

Thank you for your thoughts, Michael! I definitely hope that my builds will survive for a long time and that someone at some point will wonder such things. Something very human about that I think, wondering about those that lived before us, and making things that lasts across generations facilitate that kind of connection. Glad you enjoyed the video :)

[@josephpotterf9459]

Thanks Gillis now I go to rewatch blind dovetail video. And congrats on 10K subs moving on up!

[@GillisBjork]

Thanks Joseph, I appreciate it!

[@MCsCreations]

Really interesting experiment, dude! 😃 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@GillisBjork]

Thanks! You too!

[@庄田-q1w]

nice video as always, thanks for sharing the . I do have a question however, isn't a kerf making the dovetail fit looser than before the kerf cut? Because to do the kerf cut one have to fit the dovetail, but after the cut the end grain of the tail goed closer to the outside face of the pin, which opens up a gap between the face grain of the pin and the tail. I think the kerf method is better used on miter with mortise and tenon.

[@GillisBjork]

Thank you! That's absolutely correct. I felt like the fit still was good enough that glue would hold it, if I were to glue it up, but it would certainly have a bigger risk of coming loose over time compared to more tightly fitting dovetails. Kerf cutting a mitered mortise and tenon doesn't sound like it gets around this problem to me, you'd have to make the mortise oversized to allow the tenon to move after the kerfing, which again allows it to eventually overcome the glue bond.

[@TheVimeo]

Frank Klausz was using some king of metal to hit the pins after using the saw so was also easy to chop

[@GillisBjork]

Yes, the card scraper trick! Haven't tried but seems to work for many people.

[@liveoak4124]

Very interesting. Thank you

[@GillisBjork]

Glad you found it interesting!

[@MrMikeEdie]

great video.

[@GillisBjork]

Thank you very much!

[@steveh7866]

Skinning cats is unfashionable these days, but there are still many ways to do it :) Keep up the good work

[@GillisBjork]

Haha very true! Thanks!

[@dpmeyer4867]

Thanks

[@GillisBjork]

My pleasure, thank you!

[@YarrHarr11]

I noticed you hunched over your workbench, you should try raising it.

[@GillisBjork]

One of the reasons for building this bench was to make it lower than my old bench ;) You either make it to low for sawing, or to tall for planing, and I chose to optimise it for planing since that takes up more time generally.

[@jamespalmer4727]

You back will thank you in 15 years if you raise your work surface. How about making one of those small benches you could put on top of your lower bench? Still an interesting video, and now a new subscriber.

[@bertRaven1]

really interesting. Be interested to know which method you thought was 'easiest' and which had the least risk of error between the 1st and 4th method?

[@GillisBjork]

Thanks! For me, I'd definitely say method 1. But that's probably just because I'm the most comfortable with it, it's the most similar to more familiar types of dovetails. I also like to do things a bit slowly and methodically, it was fun to do a speed challenge but I'm most at ease when letting things take time.

[@davidsmethurst4318]

Fighting the inscapable beauty and logic of the metric system is like most of the world fighting the illogical but inevitable advance of english. The world's most irregular language but with by far the biggest vocabulary. I joined te uk fire department in 1976. My childhood was imperial and metric. I can do fractions. Everything yechnical in my 1976 training was in metric. I have earlier "manuals of fitemanship" from imperial days. The ready reckoners for things like hydraulics are ridiculously complicated. In metric I know that if a tank or a swimming pool contains 100m² of water that is 100,00 litres. My pump might be 5000 litres a minute. So the pool has 20 minutes worth of water kn it at max output. Try that onein imperial. There is also beautiful elegance. I Joule heats 1 cubic centimeter of water through 1 degree Celcius. For someone flailing against yhe ovvious see the otherwise wonderful Rob Cosman. For common sense see RC from the Mountain Top Workshop. I realise that actual argument never changed anyone's mind so rage on. Also I am the descendant of the Imperialist bastards that tried to tax the US until they wastefully chucked our favourite hot beverage into a city harbour somewhere favorite

[@markgoddard2560]

As a carpenter, I do not see the point in concealed dovetail joints for any aesthetic reason. They are fine for strength. However, carpentry is all about beautifying the grain, adding contrast and refinement to its construction. It is the only thing that one can add, because no one can improve on the beauty of a carefully chosen grain - and that is the one thing we do not make. So if you can make a light-proof joint, let the world see it. Don’t hide your light under a bushel.

[@derjman]

Just some thought off the top of my head: (1) Wasn't there the school of thought that end grain should never be visible on fine furniture? I don't agree with that reasoning, but that would be a reason for full-blind dovetails. (2) I would expect the dovetails to correct the problem where a gap appears in the mitre due to seasonal wood movement. Then it would make sense to use hidden dovetails for functional purposes. Well, these are kinda two versions of the same argument, I realise. At any rate, thanks a lot for the fun video, Gillis :)

[@choCOOLatte]

true the maker of his own hand doesn't rely on beauty of wood grain that is the skills that example of art scale. how dare you, you compare your skill do you really know everything about what he is doing about? your opinion is very human 🤣i visually this madman this is a construction grade framing carpenter he knows everything 🤣

[@GillisBjork]

Thanks for sharing your opinion! As you said, it’s hard to improve on the beauty of wood grain, so sometimes a visible joint is too visually disruptive. That’s the point of concealing the dovetails :)