How to cut dovetails slowly — hand tool woodworking shop notes

I spent Monday of last week dimensioning new stock for the sides of the serving tray. Tuesday, I cut one dovetail joint. It took about four hours. Wednesday, I cut a second joint. It took about two hours. Thursday, I fit up the last two joints in about 4 hours.

I watched a handful of dovetail videos last week. Four hours is a long time for through dovetails. Watching Rob Cosman and Frank Klausz bang out dovetails made me feel like a glacier. In my defense, I was feeling precious about my stock. I kept checking it for square. I even knifed my tails, and I cut tails first. I felt like I got over this until I cut the last joint, but this time the pressure wasn’t due to the investment in dimensioning, but the investment in the previous three joints. I was trying to channel Curtis Buchannan, who said, “You’re trying to be the best chairmaker, not the fastest chairmaker.” At any rate, I got them all to a serviceable fit. It’s far from perfect, but presently it’s my best work. I’m joining 1/4” and 3/8” material. The next time I make dovetail joints, 1/2” stock is as small as I want to go. I don’t expect that to make my joints go any faster. Not selling those joints will make them go faster.

Today I managed to glue these joints up. I sanded everything to 220. I used Old Brown Glue. I didn’t use clamps. The joints are tight enough. I measured the diagonals to check for square, and I had to squeeze the long diagonal a little to take up 1/16”. It stayed put without clamps. That’s where I’m at for now.