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March, 2003
Beginner's Mind: A convenient way to select a width for your dovetail pins is to base it on the width of a chisel. My workpiece here is 19 mm thick and I've decided to use a 14 mm chisel. Just remember that if you use this method to set your pin width, don't select too narrow a chisel, since the top width of the pins can end up with negative value!
I set my marking gage for the thickness of the wood, and mark a baseline on the face of a piece of scrap, just as I did for the actual workpiece.
Place the selected chisel about midway on the baseline, and strike it once.
Now place your dovetail marker or bevel gage on the face so that the right sloping edge is aligned with the left side of the chisel indentation. Use a pencil or fine knife edge to follow the marker up to the end grain and make a mark there.
Reverse the marker and do the same on the right side of the chisel mark, using the left side of the marker. Follow the edge up to the end grain and make a mark.
Now, measure the distance between your two end-grain marks and use that for your pin width. In this way, your pins will have a baseline width that's precisely equal to that of your chisel, making it easier to mark and pare out the sockets. If you use this method, also keep in mind that you cannot use this relationship ("14 mm chisel = 10 mm pin width") in all cases, since the pin width will change depending on the thicknesses of the wood (due to the changing height of the baseline).
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Green Gables: A Contemplative Companion to Fujino Townshipby Norman Havens nhavens@gol.com
Updated: February 2, 2004
URL: http://www2.gol.com/users/nhavens/
