Cleaning up dovetails

[paulm]

Do peopleuse anything other than normal dovetail chisels for any tidying up of the corners of tails and pins, or I am I the only one that doesn't get them quite perfect first time ? :lol:

Are skew chisels and fishtail chisels only really for lapped dovetails rather than through ?

When would you use skews rather than fishtail types ?

Cheers, Paul

 

[woodbloke]

Do peopleuse anything other than normal dovetail chisels for any tidying up of the corners of tails and pins, or I am I the only one that doesn't get them quite perfect first time ? :lol:

Are skew chisels and fishtail chisels only really for lapped dovetails rather than through ?

When would you use skews rather than fishtail types ?

Cheers, Paul

Paul - to clean out the corners on standard d/t's I use a very pointy, very sharp home made knife made from an old cut throat razor :shock: (images of Sweeny Todd leap to mind) I've got the blade in a big lump of ash so there's plenty to grip with. A scalpel will do the same job, but the blade's a bit thin and the handle doesn't give as much purchase as it's too small.
Skews can be used on lapped d/t's but a small fishtail is better I think, again I made mine from an old skew plane blade and set it into an octagonal handle...works very well.
It's quite tricky to clean up the corners of d/t pins 'specially if the pin is very small as you ain't got a lot of room to work in, hence the reason for a needle nosed, very sharp knife to get in there - Rob

 

[Derek Cohen (Perth Oz)]

Hi Paul

I do not find fishtail chisels terribly helpful with through dovetails (although they can be indispensible with half-blind ones).

What one needs is something thin that can get into the corner of the side wall angle. A fishtail is often too wide. A skew is better because it is half the fishtail. A thin knife may be just the ticket if slicing sideways. As may a chisel with a sharp side (like the LNs and Blue Spruces) if used on the push.

A selection of skews and fishtail chisels (only the Blue Spruce were made for me. I also have a coupleof other Japanese fishtails -they make excellent paring chisels).

Regards from Perth

Derek

 

[Peter Evans]

Grinding a worn sawfile (you do sharpen your own saws don't you?) into a dovetail chisel works well. They can be ground straight or skew and have sharp corners (remember to take a fraction off the three edges with the grinder unless you want to cut yourself - the edges end up razor sharp after grinding). great for fine clean up work. Or use a sharp small sawfile as is to clean up.

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The chisel does not need to be pretty, and you only need to grind off the last inch or so (the one above is almost fully ground, I have not bothered with a couple); this one is a skew - good for half blind dovetails.

 

[paulm]

Thanks for the ideas and feedback guys, looks like I might need to get skews and fishtail just to be safe :shock: :lol:

Good idea about grinding small files and similar too.......

Cheers, Paul

 

[woodbloke]

Chisel wrote:

looks like I might need to get skews and fishtail just to be safe

Paul - another small order to BS then :lol: ...include some crampons and an ice pick as well :lol: :lol: - Rob