Dovetail Joinery: The Parts of a Dovetail
George VondriskaLearn to speak the language of dovetail joinery. Dovetail joinery represents the pinnacle of craftsmanship for many woodworkers, and at some point in our pursuit of the craft, most of us feel the urge to try our hand at creating these interlocking masterpieces. Before scribing the first line or making the first cut, it is important to understand the anatomy of dovetail joinery, so that we can establish a good knowledge that can help us as we design and execute this joint with precision.
Why Dovetails?
The interlocking nature of dovetails provides a beautiful element to any woodworking joint. When a coat of finish is applied to a dovetail joint, the end grain soaks up more finish and becomes darker than the long grain portion of the joint, creating a dramatic contrast that is eye-catching. Perhaps more importantly, however, is that dovetail joinery provides one of the strongest of all woodworking joints, and is able to withstand abuse over many generations. The reason for the noteworthy strength of dovetail joinery is twofold. First, the joint features a clever physical interlock between the two pieces that can hold solidly even without glue if the joint is executed properly. Secondly, the joint provides a lot of glue surface that bonds long grain surfaces on each mating piece, which dramatically increases the strength of the glue joint.
Multiple Approaches, Same Dovetail Joinery Anatomy
Some woodworkers prefer to cut dovetail joints with a mallet, chisel and hand saw. Others like to fire up the router and use one of several woodworking jigs specifically designed for dovetail joinery. (An example of a jig that is purpose-built for dovetail joinery is the Porter Cable 4212). However you choose to approach constructing the joint, the anatomy is exactly the same. Whether you cut half-blind or through dovetails, the dovetail joinery components include the same key elements: pins, tails and sockets.
Wanna know the players? You gotta have a scorecard. So before we move onto cutting dovetails, let's make sure that we're on the same page with jargon related to dovetails. Let's do the tailboard first, that's easy. These parts sticking out of the tailboard, oddly enough, are the tails of the joint.
Doesn't matter if we're doing through dovetails or half blind dovetails, this component is always gonna be the tails. The tailboard fits into the pin and socket board. On our pin and socket board, we've got a couple things going here. The sockets are the holes that the tails are gonna drop into. Regarding the pins, which are these components, we've actually got two flavors here.
If we look at this from the end, out here on the edge of the board, notice that this side is still square because that's the edge of the board. Here it's at an angle. So to be accurate, this is a pin, but it's a half pin. Then we get in the middle because this has got an angle on this side and on this side, the one in the center is a full pin. Then when we get to the opposite side, once again, angle on this side, square on that side, half pin on the outside.
So as we work through cutting our joints, I'm, of course, gonna be making references to laying out pins, laying out tails, cutting the joint. That's why we're taking the time to stop here and make sure you've got the jargon down. Same thing is true here as with the tails. Half blind or through, doesn't matter, we're still cutting pins and sockets into one board, tails into the other board.
From watching this video, I have a better understanding of the anatomy of the dovetail joint. I have grown up not knowing why the joint was used, although I recognized done when I saw it. Now having seen this, am I supposed to get that it has a strong side and a weak side? Is this a glued joint?