How to cut a DOVETAIL HOUSING JOINT by HAND

[@MattEstlea]

Like the workbench? Watch me make it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fImuiqqDZctojbc&t

[@bryanstellfox8521]

I've been watching your videos since the beginning, and YOU specifically have helped enable me to finally leave my day job and fully open my own woodworking business! I started woodworking like the typical American...with power tools. After a couple of years, I became proficient enough to have a side gig. Then, I realized how poor my craftsmanship was. I was proficient with standard power tools, but I needed to learn traditional hand tools to become something more!

[@mykhelderian]

Well, it's a bit comforting to know that you sometimes.make mistakes. After watching your other tut on cutting dovetails, (you know, the one where your dovetails mated perfectly and were astheticly beautiful) I went into the workshop and looked at some dovetails I had previously cut and began to cry. Seriously, Matt , I love your demeanor, your thoroughness and your the effort you put out in the pursuit of excellence. I think your are headed to be a master craftsman. Thanks so much for your generosity in sharing your considerable knowledge with us.

[@colinellicott9737]

Awesome job! Love the plain talk about errors, kudos on being open and clear about that, so much more relatable than annoying perfection. Thx

[@christophercastor6666]

It’s cool going back to see your work from so long ago, especially after hearing about your battles with mental health. You’re an incredible educator and a wonderful presenter; I especially like your honesty and willingness to discuss imperfections! Thank you Matt as always, -CY Castor

[@JeepTherapy]

I think this is one of your best videos. You slowed it down a bit and showing your mistakes and how easy it really is to make a mistake in woodworking is by all rights honorable. Thank you.

[@ptcruiser2012]

"I am a right old cowboy like that". Brilliant description. Love the video. I know this is a bit old but I have been going back through your stuff.

[@vosifle]

Best tutorials on KZbin! Thank you!

[@myself9128]

Pointing out mistakes is helpful for the mere novice! Another great video, watching every one! Bought myself the Veritas Dovetail 14tpi this weekend thanks to your tool videos, what a beauty!

[@MattEstlea]

Nice! You’ll see that saw through many years of work. It’s very good considering the price!

[@geezergeek1637]

Thanks for making this series. Teaching this "old dog" a few new tricks.

[@Jake65Kelly]

Matt. You are a breath of fresh air. Great targeted information delivered quickly and no tedious waffle! I am so impressed with your information and balanced cool style I am signing up as a Patreon supporter. Keep up the great work! Cheers from Australia.

[@christophercastor6666]

Thank you Matt! It’s been a while since I originally watched this, but it’s always a great time to see you work

[@Robin-tg4yr]

Love that you include the mistakes.

[@frenstcht]

You _can_ crosscut with a rip saw. You could also sever that line with a chisel and a mallet, a K-BAR and a lead pipe, or a steak knife and some grit -- comma true. After 7 years in a mill shop, I gotta say that 90% of woodworking is knowing what's the right tool for the job. Or the right combination of tools; if you've ever had to match an antique moulding with a shaper and a random collection of router bits, you know what I'm talking about. Anybody who reads this and hasn't seen the vid on how to saw needs to go watch it, by the way. My sawing is several orders of magnitude better just from watching it and applying it. And that's without practice. Great stuff!

[@georgiesgirl64]

Great learning for us ladies out there. Cheers keep em coming

[@craigsmith8076]

Awesome video mate and thanks for showing and explaining the mistakes. You are a fantastic teacher.

[@anthonyclaypool6925]

Thanks for breaking down the method for final chopping and clean up. I split a chunk of the rear jaw for a Moxon vise I'm working on because I created "steps" by trying to cut the housing upright. 🤦 Mistakes are opportunities I guess...

[@acalek]

Can't thank you enough for your videos m8. Great to see someone elevate the quality of woodworking instructional videos, there is some serious production value on display. Also want to commend you for encouraging future wood workers by making these techniques accessible and more importantly, understandable to the masses.

[@Swarm509]

While I love doing hand work in my projects the housing joint really makes more sense with a router bit if you have many of them to cut out, rather then then chiseling. Still could do the dovetail part by hand though. Still a great joint to know how to do by hand, and satisfying once it all comes together.

[@margaret-annekent3247]

Totally brilliant! What took me so long to find a proper craftsman's video? Only one thing....please could you speak more slowly? Many thanks. Annie

[@RamsesMCMLI]

During my bench days at pratical post-graduation times, my friend told me: Hey, perfect ist the worst enemy of good! I enjoyed evr'y bit of ur video Kudos mate!

[@rsdevarapalli]

Inspiring Good quality joint making skills, thanks for sharing.

[@HansHoffmeister]

Well done! Learned a lot

[@l1verm0m]

Great video Matt... your ‘warts and all’ approach is refreshing and helpful.

[@MattEstlea]

Cheers Mike!

[@blhale1]

When making a depth adjustment with a router plane, once the locking clamp is tight, rotate the adjustment knob up (counter-clockwise) to remove the slack. This will prevent the blade from being pulled down while cutting.

[@patchedupdemon7104]

youd have thought hed have known that,i mean he has all the tools so must be an expert

[@SethDanielRiedel]

I normally do that too but sometimes we all forget in the excitement of something

[@drekowski]

Great video, I like your attention to detail, care and accuracy. I would consider using a chisel or knife to sever the fibres the saw couldn't reach instead of just breaking them out. The joint was stuck a bit earlier than where you marked it, due to the stopped portion of the dovetail; looking for shiny spots on the joint helps to locate tight portions as well. And finally, for such a short joint parallel works well, but if the parts get wider and the groove longer, it may be worth tapering the dovetail ever so slightly, in order to have the joint lock only in the last 1-2 inches. Keep it up!

[@inxj5915]

I have the same Veritas router plane and found that if I have upward pressure on the blade anytime I’m adjusting the depth of cut, it avoids nasty surprises. One way to do this is to make sure the plane is sitting upright with its weight on the blade anytime the locking collar is loose.

[@garyknight8616]

Great video Matt. The honesty, as others have already mentioned, is appreciated and very helpful. Appreciate you've got a lot going on but would like to see the lighting improved. If you are on Patreon I'm happy to chuck you a few quid every month to help out. Cheers, Gary

[@danieloshannessy5595]

Love this video very helpful for my purpose even though I will opt for a through dovetail for my own project very interesting idea with the slide stop.

[@wolfgang4468]

Great you do not hide anything, appreciate that.

[@TheEveryMaker]

I have a project I'm currently working on where I need a dovetail housing joint and was originally going to do it with a router. The piece is too small and I didn't feel safe, so I may just have to sharpen my chisels and give it a try with hand tools! Thanks again for the video and I really appreciate you showing the mistakes, it helps make it feel less intimidating.

[@MattEstlea]

No worries mate! Best of luck with it!

[@mchaste2019]

Kind of new to woodworking and really want to practice all these types of joints. Any tips on what woods to use for practicing my joint skills?

[@EquilibriaHealth]

Always love your videos and your honesty.

[@czokalapik]

Great video as usual, I never thought of starting chopping away from the edges to prevent undercuts to be visible, great tip!

[@totobill22]

Super vidéo, Thank's from France :)

[@RBTrujillo1]

Outstanding video Sir!

[@MattEstlea]

Wooaahh please tell me you're the Robert Trujillo from Metallica?! ;) Cheers Robert!

[@RBTrujillo1]

Sir! No No No No! I am not the same Robert Trujillo you think of! I am a nobody, I am a common person that enjoys your videos Sir. The closest I come to any remote level of heavy metal is a cousin Randy Castillo who was a drummer who played with Ozzy and Motley Crue. So no, I am not the the Robert you think of, I'm sorry.

[@1guitarlover]

Hey Matt, I am so sad that you had that tiny little home in the dove tail... :P. You are just a gifted carpenter. One thing. Please consider improving the light system, for the light above you provokes to many shadows on your working bench. Cheers!

[@TheLastPharm]

Oh dear, 62 people must be offended by Jesus on a ballpoint pen. On a more serious note, I love the way you make things look perfectly simple and logical and easy while this must take hundreds if not thousands of hours of practice. Very nice work and narration.

[@brianm.9451]

Awesome! This is a good reason to hone my hand sawing skills.

[@WoodByWright]

Sweet work man. love your Videos. if you ever want to do a collab let me know.

[@luisp8999]

YES PLEASE!!

[@MattEstlea]

It seems people want it to happen! I'm up for it!

[@LimitedGunnerGM]

I follow both of you and would love to see that!

[@davidfarmer2049]

did this happen?

[@hughatkins]

I'd really like to see such a collaboration too!!

[@dibley1973]

Amazing clear and detailed explanation, as per the norm with your videos. Thanks for sharing.

[@lincolndickerson1293]

Curious could you have removed a thin bit of material from the shoulder of the darker wood to let it fall that minimal amount into the dovetail without sacrficing the tight fit of the joint much?

[@rjamsbury1]

Great instruction as ever Matt, thanks. Could that bruised bottom corner have happened from the offside of the chisel when skewing into the opposite corner?

[@martinbrace7195]

Awesome job Matt thanks.

[@MultiWarrior63]

Thanks Matt, great timing mate

[@MattEstlea]

Read your mind. Cheers Ken!

[@arra4741]

Great! Thank you, waiting for next one!

[@timothyball3144]

Not trying to bust your chops or anything, but is there a crack on the dovetail opposite that bruise? If so, would that come from the edge being too tight?

[@gryshie100]

Matt. Is this kind of joint that could protect the table top when you do it at the bottom of table top? Protect for example of twisting when you glue UP together wide boards. If that is True do you have any advice for do it all acros the table top? Thanks and greatings 😊

[@danielallen2000]

very nice, keep it up!

[@Subsonic-cd2en]

Great videos! For some reason, your mannerisms and style really remind me of Gordon Ramsey, lol - minus all the anger and yelling.

[@jmwing]

agreed - I noticed that too

[@paulrobinson5833]

yeah just as annoying!

[@genardusfaberus6514]

Great video. Thank you.

[@radinsyah1574]

My veritas router has the same fault. Besides the weak locking system, the blade end can be too trigger happy too… allowing the bevel of the blade dig deeper into the stock and micro-tilting the base forwards.

[@jchadwick7506]

FGS. I only bought the fine tooth saw, didn't I? Sigh. See you at the weekend...Your vids are costing me a fortune. :-)

[@akjkjkak]

That marking knife looks sweet. Where did you get it? It almost looks like one David Barron used to sell.

[@jeffjensen4532]

Great video! Just started. I hope that some day my mistakes can be as small as yours...wood working mistakes that is...! :D You do fantastic work! Keep it up!...your work/videos that is... :D

[@MattEstlea]

Haha you should see the size of my mistakes outside of Woodworking! Cheers Jeff.

[@chriss4613]

Thank you for sharing your mistakes. Too many people shy away from showing that.

[@josephKEOarthur]

what is the mallet you are using? for the chisel?

[@Cynyr]

up next a stopped, tapered, dovetail housing joint for use on wider stock?

[@johnmontgomery560]

Is there any work around on the Veritas router to get more accurate depth ?

[@LoveofChocolate18]

nice opening credit!

[@royr327]

Woodworking is the never ending pursuit of the unobtainable idea of perfection. Good you think you know what happened, all errors are preventable, but also sometimes unavoidable. From my view it was the knife lines that caused the fiber to sever, sometimes because of unpredictable grain structure. Most folks wouldn't show a video of a cross grain dovetail. And you rightly point out that it is never the tools fault. Go to 17:13 and look at the horizontal knife line protruding past the dovetail line . Still, great job.

[@BlackSwan912]

Wouldn’t a skew chisel avoid that bruise?

[@rolandharrison5651]

Matt, could you please slow down. I have to keep going back 2 or 3 times ( or more ) for each step to catch what you are saying. This makes it difficult to put the whole process together. It takes such a long time to complete the whole video. You do a great job explaining.

[@chm1701]

Shame that you were so disappointed about the result, Matt. Although, I do understand why, but thanks for the video and for showing us the mistakes and how to prevent them.

[@QlueDuPlessis]

Just watched some similar from Wood by Wright

[@MultiEsben]

What make Chisels are you using"

[@MattEstlea]

Lie-Nielsen!

[@johnc.4871]

I thought it kind of comical that you have a jesus pen and say god I need a new one. good luck with that request. lol

[@zagrizena]

The Jesus pen had me confused for a moment there. Watching one of your videos before I wasn't really paying so much attention to the tools and I just assumed it was some kind of carpenter jargon for a really simple basic marking tool that can be traced back 2000 years. Kind of like a marking knife maybe? Only now I noticed it was an actual pen with literally Jesus figure on it, lol 😀

[@gizanked]

If I want to do this but I don't have a Jesus pen will it still work or is a deity pen required?

[@ianbeckett2427]

Plenty of other deities to choose from though... static.wixstatic.com/media/1de1f3410742f752894df086116bea2f.wix_mp_512

[@MattEstlea]

ooooo you may struggle a bit!

[@WoodByWright]

you really do need an affiliate link to that pen.

[@JeepTherapy]

Yes a deity pen is required. I recommend Ganesh... or how ever you spell it... god of removing obstacles... but in your case... wood. :D

[@mynameisciaran]

Matt, I love your videos. Very helpful and well made. However, I'm new to woodwork, I'm pretty bad at it and I realise now that this is because of my low-quality pens. The problem is, I'm kind of broke. Can I just write the word Jesus on one of my pencils?

[@jacobdiscipleofjesusforeve419]

Great info. Jesus loves you Matt

[@rick91443]

Enjoyed watching and thanks...rr

[@gregorylondos534]

I only wanna leave a comment for your workbench homemade or purchased...?

[@MattEstlea]

Visit my profile, it’s the first video at the top ;)

[@seanhollandcanada]

As a Buddhist, I would like to recommend that you get a Buddha pen.

[@Тисо-щ4я]

famously made by Matt! sorry for my English

[@MattEstlea]

It will be living in the glass cabinet on the right hand side of the screen from now on!

[@Тисо-щ4я]

very interesting your videos!

[@charliegoransson12]

Subbed

[@pgtips4240]

Still a really good joint considering you were going at rocket pace and doing a video.

[@Sonicexpres]

He doesn't have a combination square?! How is this possible?

[@thomasarussellsr]

Oops and bruises happen. Still, all in all a great how to video. Thanks.

[@MattEstlea]

Cheers Thomas!

[@lnesland]

Nice work. But why not just sand the sides, instead of using a chisel?

[@janikumlander1822]

You should make a new mallet 😬

[@okiterukagetsu]

mmm dovetails

[@NoCom.36]

Молодец, кудрявый!

[@Giich]

The fit is too damn tight even 1 shoulder splitted. I fall in that too when i got it too snug its really scary to fix that cause it can quickly become too loose which is even worse :)

[@rickgoebel6724]

17k subscribers minus the one down below. 20K by end of year?

[@MattEstlea]

Hahaha, bet its going to be 19,999! Nah I'm going for 25K Rick!

[@Wheel333]

🙏❤️🙏

[@planespeaking]

Love these videos but electric router ftw on this.

[@logancarr5676]

Wood working Jon snow

[@tinycuisine6544]

I love what you do, but I feel you rush a little bit. Something like this trakes time to assimilate. Just some constructive criticism. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

[@theYeti1000]

I love your tuts. They are very straight forward. But I won't ever be able to do them because I don't have a Jesus pen.

[@robertlangley258]

Ok now I am absolutely positive beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ve not nearly enough brain cells to accomplish a dovetail like this! Guess I’ll just keep using glue and 20 penny nails driven with 5lb ax head for joints. Where the hell do people born like this come from? 👍👍👍👍👍

[@MattEstlea]

Haha what a comment! Cheers Robert! Don’t worry, this joint is actually very forgiving as a lot of it is hidden. Just take time on the shoulder lines and don’t worry too much about the rest. As you say, nails and glue can fix any loose joints ;)

[@TheWoodYogi]

Hi Robert :) I love the comment. He did make it look easy, but if we follow the video step by step and with a few times trying it out on scraps of wood, we can do it :D

[@robertlangley258]

The Wood Yogi if you say so Yogi, but I’m feelin a little lack-0-noodle after watching this young man go. He’s a baked potato and a whole bag of chips..thanks for the pep tho Yogi ✌️

[@edelrabe]

Jesus pen, nice one)

[@dimitardobrev3296]

what are these things?

[@douglanglois456]

Just started watching your videos. Great content, great presentation. But I have to ask - what's with the Jesus pen? Earnest Christian, or irony? Not that either is right or wrong.

[@czokalapik]

I would guess neither, it's simply a Jesus pen :D

[@kennethodette1352]

It rubs a lot of people wrong . Kind of blasphemous. you should retire the pen unless you like pissing of Christians.

[@BlackSwan912]

Kenneth Odette Christians ... myth-believers. I’ve never met one that doesn’t prove to be a hypocrite.

[@nikolce14008]

Great video, but you should improve the lighting in your shop where you film the videos.

[@MattEstlea]

Cheers mate. I’m using 2 led panels at the moment but definitely need more but I’m starting to put more effort into what I’ve got now.

[@Sombraespía]

You should try the tapered dovetail joint to larger work because not even couldn't close your sample.

[@paulrobinson5833]

What is sawring?

[@Deestainglass01]

what's up with Jesus pen. great video

[@MattEstlea]

My favourite pen, that is all!

[@jakelilevjen9766]

Please, oh please, buy some lights!

[@richardmasters3571]

I think you should rise above all this talk of Jesus pens. After all, it's quite clear that what you need a Dennis the Menace pen! Yeah, yeah, I'm going.

[@jimmystoba7899]

Nice opportunity to make a video on how to fix the booboos you've made? 😉

[@RubenGarcia-kc3op]

Duel between Jesus pen and Buddha's? Lol