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After attempting my first dovetails around November last year, I havent built upon the experience or attempted any other dovetails since. The Small Pine Chest was (and still is) my favourite project so far and I think I got very lucky with some quite tidy joints for a beginner.
I decided it was time to attempt to repeat the experience, almost knowing ahead of time that the first time was a fluke, and so to prepare for disappointment.
The idea for this project came from a small piece of Oak I had which was an offcut from the first ever thing I made. I decided it would make a nice lid for a box, and this with a length of 6" wide Pine board formed my stock.
I wont bore you too much with the starting process, needless to say that the bench hook, tenon saw and square, chisel and knife saw to cutting the pine to length, before using my no#4 plane and shooting board to shoot the ends clean.
Having all my components to size, I started to get a feel for the finished box.
After cutting to length I noticed a slight cupping of the boards and so dealt with this by planing across and diagonal to the grain with both my no#6 and no#4 .
Time to get my tools sorted for dovetails....
I used my new Veritas 1:6 dovetail template to make short work of marking out the tails, doing two boards at a time. Its certainly more accurate and less fiddly than using a bevel gauge. Time for some chopping...
After a quick sharpening session, I decided to remove all the tail waste using only chisels. Previously I think I removed the bulk of the waste using a fret saw. Once complete I marked out the bespoke Pins one board at a time using the side of my no#4 plane to mate up the boards accurately.
Maybe as a result of watching to many Utube dovetail videos, I tried to make the effort to not be overly slow and meticulous about making this box. I certainly didnt fuss to much with cutting the tails knowing the pins are marked from the tails and should correct any innacuracies. Obviously you get faster and better with time, but I dont want to spend a week making a simple box.
Ok .. first dry fit... not as good as they should be cosmetically but its certainly a strong box! Lesson learnt my board ends are slightly off square and hence my baselines are different either side of the board when marked out with the marking gauge. Its not a lot but enough to create gappy joinery. On with the show...
I thought it was about time I did my first ever grooved bottom and do the box bottom properly.
Ta daaa....The debut of my new Record 44 Plough plane. After sharpening the 3/16ths blade and a quick practice with a small scrap of pine, I went for it. The groove was cut to (just over) 5mm deep, meaning I had to allow 1cm in length and width when cutting the bottom piece. I decided to put the grooves all the choice through the pins and later hide the resultant holes with a skirt.
Time to cut some thin plywood for the bottom... 25cm x 17.5cm.
And do a dry fit....
The box holds together really tightly, it could probably serve its purpose without glue.... I hate this bit!
Panic over - I managed to get it all together with a lot of banging with a leather faced mallet and a scrap of wood. Unfortunately, the sight of the joinery closing up nicely with the added gap filler of glue led to me applying slight too much pressure....Doh!
Not to worry - its not the end of the world and I can probably doctor those small cracks when the glue is dry. The next step was to plane the old varnish from the box lid, trim it to size and add a decorative small bevel.
With the box out of the clamps I used my Stanley 102 block plane to trim the proud pins and tails before smoothing with my no#4.
The clamps and glue had helped to close up the dovetails, still not perfect and the odd one was a little gappy, but overall Im not too disappointed as a second attempt. In the true spirit of full disclosure, the following pictures show the pins and tails of all four sides.
Basically at this stage the box is almost complete and I had a change of mind (partly due to laziness) about fitting a skirt to hide the bottom groove in the bottom half pins. Instead I thought I would keep it simple, try and match the grain as best as I can and plug the holes.
I used a chisel to rive off small pieces of pine and trim to fit before glueing them in and finally using my flush cut saw to trim them off. I think they look fine.
So aside from having any hinges (which Ill fit at a later date) and a coat or two of Boiled Linseed Oil (BLO), I was done. All in all I am quite pleased with this project both in terms of how it turned out and the time it took me to do it. Being only my second attempt at dovetails and my first ever grooved bottom made it interesting from start to finish without it becoming too epic.
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Currently reading and enjoying Country Furniture by Aldren Watson.
After the recommendation of this post at the Renaissance Woodworker, I immediately jumped on to Ebay and got myself a copy. I wont bother giving an in depth review, but needless to say I highly recommend it if you are even vaguely interested in Old-School wood working tools, techniques and furniture. The hand sketched diagrams are stunning...
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Were almost done ...Ok so where are we ... Two stools, with all the joinery cut.
Both are structurally complete with all the components dry fit in place. The next step is to round over all the sharp edges and put some shape into the seat ends and the centre brace ends.
I used my t(rusty) old Stanley 102 block plane to break the aris of all the edges and my no#4 to bevel the seat ends. I made sure to sharpen before starting as this is all end grain work.
Sand paper and a file was also used to smooth the edges where appropriate. The final shaping isnt complete as there will have to be further clean up after gluing to finish it.
I also planed the components and done any final tweaking to make sure the joinery was tight.
Time for Glue Up...
I hate this stage! No matter how many times I do a dry run rehearsal and get everything ready, I alchoices seem to get stressed and panic and it never goes smoothly. Regular readers may recall I had a nightmare when glueing the original stool. Glueing the smaller stool first, the same happened again!... The bloody glue makes the joinery (particularly the seat top to leg joint) really tight and everything starts to dry choice to quickly! I had to really use a fair bit of clamping pressure to get all the joints up snug. Its a head job because you spend all your time trying to make joinery nice and precise and tight, only to realise sloppier joinery would lead to a better final finish. The joinery didnt look as nice after glueing as it did during the dry fit...At one stage, I thought about aborting but it felt like I might struggle to get it apart in time. Leaving the stool to dry for 24 hours and having a limited number of clamps, I fearfully, began the glue up of the larger stool the next day - Friday 13th!
Luckily, the glue up of the larger stool went smoothly. Not having enough clamps, I only dry fit the center brace of each stool during glue up to keep the legs square. I will do these on both stools together after the main glue up is complete.
While the larger stool was in clamps I used my flush cut saw to trim the leg tops and side brace ends of the smaller stool and then again used the Stanley block plane and some sand paper to smooth the joinery.
Time to cut the legs so that the feet sit properly and the stool is level...
I used the kitchen work surface after checking it for flat to stand each stool on, before shimming each leg using folded paper to get the stool level. I used my combination square level to check both dimensions, before using a small block of wood and a ruler to mark around each leg.
I used my marking knife and chisel to further mark each cut and make the cut more accurate using my carcass saw. A quick chamfer of each leg using my block plane and sand paper to stop the end grain splitting if the stool is moved sidechoices on carpet for example and I am basically done.
I finally spent some further time cleaning up and sanding before rubbing each stool with a coat of Boiled Linseed Oil. I may experiment with some liquid wax finish as well.
So ... two stools finished. I think I prefer the look of the smaller stool. I definitely wont make any further projects two at a time. I seem to lose focus and miss being able to concentrate on the details of a single piece. Not to mention progress is obviously a lot faster... and more enjoyable.
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