Hand Production Techniques - Lesson Five

This lesson was introduced that I was going to be making Dovetail Joints. These joints are one of the most decorative joints I feel you can make, but first I had to learn how to mark them out. I also learnt about a new tool, which is called the sliding bevel. This is used to set to a certain angle, and then use it to either draw or mark an angled line.

Above: Sliding Bevel

To produce the Dovetail joint we first had to work out the correct angle of the tails. This is either 1/8 for hardwoods, or 1/6 for softwoods.

Step 1:

Using a Try Square, draw a straight line up a scrap piece of wood, up to either 8cm (Hardwoods) or 6cm (Softwoods).

Step 2:

Measure 1 cm along the bottom of the board away from the existing line.

Step 3:

Join the the two lines together using a straight rule.

Step 4:


Using the Sliding Bevel take the angle from the wood.

After this, we were told to use this angle to make a dovetail marker. This allows you to quickly and easily mark dovetails on any piece of wood, without the need to use the Sliding Bevel.

Below I have included the dimensions and 3d view of the D/T marker.

This went really well and I completed the D/T Marker in good time, with no errors. I also had a chance to use my new saw, which was a cross cut saw and it was much easier to use.