Woodright Shop Dovetales

[Music] [Applause] hello again welcome back to the would ride shop my name is Roy Underhill novel tales novel tales that's what I've got for you and I've got something about it that a good friend of mine mr. Charles Dickens you know him had to say about novel tales I'm speaking of dovetails and in his work you may know it's Nicholas Nickleby he described the cosmic significance of dovetails he said the unities sir are a completeness a kind of universal dovetail Ernest with regard to place and time it's true dovetails hold it together they keep it together and there's all different kinds I've got some novel tales to share with you look at the regular dovetails though before we do and they called dovetails of course because they fan out like the tail of a dove you know what a dove flies off you see Emma in the square they had their tail fanned out and that's the dove tail and it's the in the French it's called the same thing a cute dog the tail of the pigeon whatever same thing anyway look at her regular dove tail there here on this box got a dove tail that goes through and it's exposed on both sides you can see the tail itself here how that fans out like a tail it's kind of faint because it's all the same color and here's a pin a piece of these pieces are exposed on both sides and they can only come apart of course this can only pull apart in this direction there is one degree of freedom in this joint so a dove tail always has to have that that's the one thing we're going to see is that it can only come apart in one direction of course if these were just straight it can pull apart in two directions part like this and it could pull apart like that but a dove tail only goes one way now here's a neat but this is a dove tail of course that you use on drawers this is called the half blind the Dove tail I pulled out two set of drawers here and you can see the pine the way the pine goes into the oak and tails out it it spreads out fan so that as you pull the drawer open you know you're pulling the drawer there's a lot of stress to pull this apart here well it can't because this is wedged in there it's keyed in so again the dovetail one degree of freedom very strong very useful joint it's interesting it was known in a pre ancient times but it appears to have disappeared along with a lot of things during the Middle Ages and was only a very few of the monks actually knew the dovetailing and it came back and the late Middle Ages early 17th century earlier than that but the dovetails disappeared and came back kind of a funny thing and it's very important in things like construction you talk about a building here you see if I can get this back together I've taken this apart a little bit too much only way I can do it again this is part of the little model of a hammer beam and this is the part that would normally hang on the wall like this and the hammer beam and it has a dovetail here I'm gonna reassemble this a little bit I think and see how that dovetail slips in very very strong see it can't go up it can't go down it can only go in and out the way it came and of course that direction is the direction in which there is no stress so this is another kind of dovetail very strong any pressure pulling down on that this wedging will lock itself very very strong way and this is just another it's still just another kind of there are sliding dovetail this candle stand here has feet on it that are also held by dovetails that slide out now these dovetails you can see run the length of the base and the tails are actually the pins run the length of the base and the legs a little dovetail that slides up and down I've even seen patch boxes on early you know muzzleloading rifles where the patch box would go in and they're held by a sliding dovetail so wouldn't patch box that slides on so it's a sliding dovetail very good construction technique I've got it here on this little bench as well this little bench is kind of a puzzle [ __ ] old early American design you can see the way the single this is a half dovetail like that when we were looking at on the hammer beam this runs the full length of the bench and it's a puzzle there's no glue or any other kind of joint just this sliding dovetail that runs the length of it now if you think that's the limit there no no we still got for you remember this thing made a while ago this is a what it is it is called a smoke grinder or a do-nothing a machine you can see what it does it does absolutely nothing but it has two loose dovetails that run sliding like cams I guess inside the dovetail slots and you can see that one has to move before the other can move and it's the smoke grinder a do-nothing there you go and you think well now that's the limit certainly dovetails have reached their ultimate but that is but the Pend ultimate because there is more yes there is more I want you to see the novel tales and these are the dovetails that are used as kind of amusements amongst people who lack any a greater amusement then let me show you the first of these this is of course a dovetail that comes in that's very common it's just a scarf joint you can see this dovetail links these two pieces together and you can see it's just dovetailed straight on like that's of course it could slide couldn't it wait a minute now how does this come apart now you're looking at this thing wait a minute wait a minute what is this this thing is dovetailed around all four sides now how is that possible you know a dovetail has to have only one way it can go so if this wants to slide off this way well this tail is in the way what on earth is going on well this is an old trick this is a classic wood carvers wigglers of care whatever somebody with too much time on their hands trick a classic and also there is another classic technique of before I show you how to do this I am going to request that you see the rest of the things that I have to show you before I show you the solution to this and I will try and get you to wait before you see so I'm gonna put this aside let you think about this how can you get a dovetail in from all four sides of a peace before we see how to do it see if you can solve it yourself because there's a trick there's a trick to it I'll show you another one that has a neat trick to it and it's it's right here and then many ways this is even neater this is called the T puzzle sometimes and now you say well that's no big deal look at that here's a dovetail uh just stuck in piece of oak going into a piece of walnut you always tell when it's a puzzle because they'll use contrasting pieces of wood with it as I have done here and you'd think well this just pulls straight out of course would just pull this right on out won't we no we won't because look you see what's happening here see how that's dovetails so this can't I can't push that down can i no because that's dovetail like that I can't pull this out can i no because it's dovetail like this and I can't go that way obviously what can I do how does this come apart so it's a mystery this is a an old puzzle that is very hard to solve if you think about it but it's only hard if you know how dovetails are supposed to work and I bet if you didn't you can figure it out real easy let me show you how it works and you can you can see for yourself see if it makes sense I'm just gonna tap it apart and you watch what happens as I tap right I'm ready here and I can take it apart no real gently watch what's happening do you see how it's slipping back it's not only coming up and out but it's slipping down and you can see the way it works that's it see it's a tapered piece and it goes into a tapered slide out there I'm gonna put it back together and take it apart again for you to see that that's what happens see it's recessed here that's back in there and as I slide in it slips up into place and it becomes flush with the surface and here you are and when you see it of course it looks like there's a no way on earth this thing could come apart is there because there's no there's where is that direction of freedom well it's just tapered it slides down and slips out to the end let me show you how to lay this out take it apart one more time because you have to see this and if I don't explain this well enough there are look for books on whittling and wood carving you know from the early part of the 20th century this was such a popular thing it really wasn't in most of them there we are see see all it is you have to lay out on the front tapering dovetail like that it has to taper on the end like this and then beveled right down the back and you just cut this piece to match it here's the bottom with the wide bottom where the piece goes in and here's the top where it finishes up and we'll go ahead and lay it out now I can lay it out and a little bit bigger size real simple I mean I'm not gonna take too much time to do this because it is so simple but take a gauge or something see what I've done is take a gauge and just ran a line I'm not gonna readjust that but ran line right across here I think I can see it oh yeah all right there's a square line across now take a bevel I'm gonna get a bevel like this and you can set that first diagonal now don't do this see what I'm doing I've got very little wood here's always a problem when you're doing these end grain joints I've got very little wood to base this on here see and it can rock and I may be very inaccurate so slide up and do it this way and now I've got that all the way across the base here so I'm gonna do it like this set that right on that edge and all right now swing around and do the other side and again not like this not like this with just a very little bit of this base writing on it but all the way over here so I've got most of the base angles the same side on other side of this bevel here you want to give it as much contact between the piece of wood there there we go all right now same thing down the face what I'm gonna do is use the same angle just for the heck of it and come from the intersection right here on down and again use as much as of the wood as you can on it so that will obscure it for you a little bit but you can see what I'm doing down to a line that is the same let me do this and I'll explain it the same distance yeah there we are and this goes down to a line that you can see scratch there that is the same distance as the piece that you are going to connect it into sorry there's a line right there scratched on to that so you can see how that's gonna fit together now what have we got to do one more line here I have got to cut from here down to the back side will give me a line just like that and on here see so now I go all the way out from this top line to there all right now you just do the same kind of layout on the on the female piece that it's gonna go into you want to get to a shape like that and it really is just a matter of sawing these apart I'm just gonna saw one shoulder of it so that you can see what its gonna look like when I do it I'm gonna slide it down here I've got it on the bench and I'm gonna make my side cut first let me go over and get my sock scuse me I'm just gonna rip on down first cut you can see how quickly you can do this now one thing is I'm cutting the the male part really I guess the the tail itself that's going in there you want to cut on the outside of that line you want to make the part that goes into the pocket bigger than the piece it's going into and I'm gonna cut him here so you can see my relationship to the line a little bit better and just rip right on down saw the diagonal of the cut first there we go easy with the ripsaw and then take a little fine cross cross-cutting saw cut away the wood there you go alright there's the first pop there's the first part of it right there let me show you again any final pieces so you can get the idea so it's just cutting away four cuts one two three actually that's three cuts and you end up with a shape like this that slips together like that perfectly clear alright you're all gonna be tested on this later because it's a completely useless thing to do no it's not there are applications for these kind of dovetails and I show them to you in just second this one that really doesn't the only thing that was ever much done with these was that folks would take them and make mallets this is done for puzzle mallets in the 19th century they'd take instead of having one of these tails on here like this they of course make two of them so it comes up on both sides so you've got two of these Hickory tails coming up to a mallet head and it would look like something that could never come apart and all through the 19th early 20th century this was a very popular occupation making puzzle mallets and people have x-rated them and I'm not exactly sure how they're done but I'm gonna look at it and we'll do that later on all right now let's see the practical side of this kind of work because there is use for these kind of dovetails and you get into it one of the places is when you're building log houses you'll notice when your eye happens to all the time you're building a log house you know you stack up the logs on the end wall to make the the wall yes the end wall where the fireplace goes and then you cut the opening for the fireplace and you've got to put a board up against the end grain of all those logs you've cut same when you do a door or window you've got a peg a board up to it they get into that problem of peg holding in integrate same as nail holding in other words this is what you're doing you're taking a peg and here I've got one this is neat this is out of Osage orange wood peg going into endgrain tends to it won't grab you just can't make the darn thing tight enough so that it won't pull out easy and there's a very simple reason for that it's to do with the grain when you're pegging across the grain here's the grain just like that go go in lengthwise and you drive a peg in of course it grabs because you're going across the grain so that can cross grain grab will hold the peg you're going across the fibers and they'll grab it what about when you're going in and grain well then you're going like this you're going in long ways like that and there's no grab to it it just doesn't it won't lock up so you've got a problem the pegs are always going to come out what are you gonna do what do you do well you turn it from a simple cylindrical peg into a dovetail and you make a change after it's inside the log old trick this is Fox wedging what you do is take your peg saw a slot right down the end of it saw a slot down it and make yourself a wedge that will go in that slot now what will happen is when that peg hits the bottom of the auger hole you see we can get that in there there you go well that peg hits the bottom of the auger hole well it's going to expand the peg isn't it but it's gonna be deep enough inside the wood that it'll be held by this outer wooden it's not likely to crack is it so this kind of thing when that hits the bottom that that wedge will be driven up in there expand this and it should be tight so let's go ahead and do it I think I've got the wedge in there right you want to make sure it's straight because if it gets cocked over you're out of luck it will not work and you'll be sorry all right now I'm gonna hit this up here let's see how this goes this is how you do it you pegging your doorframe or your fireplace frame to the end walls of your log house I would say that sounds as if it has bottoms out wouldn't you I think so now I can't pull it out how we're gonna tell I want to do is just I'm gonna split it open and we take a look at it on the inside and see if it has done what I'd hoped it has was going to do this is tulip poplar so it should be pretty easy to split it doesn't split all the way like I wanted I'll just oh shoot all right way out the hole peg came loose but let's see if I can see it anyway hoping it would stay in place let's see if that wedge has indeed yes it has folks been driven up inside there and expanded in the wood and how I just never ever come out so that expanding peg see it had been driven all the way at the bottom and the wid wedge dripping up in there that'll expand within their locking yeah it's not just an pegs of course there are other things that go and when you do a mortise and tenon joint like I've got here this is a mortise and tenon joint like forum doing a panel door or something I've see I've got the tenon you can see the anti grain coming out on the side so the hole goes all the way through this piece extends through there and then there's the end grain of it and this is locked by pegs going through here alright pegs what if you don't want those unsightly pegs to show you could I guess put a wedge on the outside and of course many doors and windows are wedged out here you enlarge the mortise that it goes through and wedge it out here but what if you don't want to show out there you can do very much the same trick the same thing using a mortise and tenon joint and I've got that right here and this is again called Fox wedging and here's a here's your typical mortise and it is see how that's in a solid piece of wood and here's your typical tenant and you want to make it hold you don't want to have pegs through it you want to make sure it's tight you can do the same thing but here let me go in let's go in x-ray vision here normally this would be closed and I would be doing all this with the chisel like this and this is a course a solid block of wood not two pieces but inside it would look like this you have and you know of the hollow where the chisels been driven in sequentially to cut it and what you do when you cut your mortise in this case though is drive straight down only for the first three eighths of an inch and then start undercutting see so I get in there and I undercut on either side so that when I Drive the tenant in along with wedges that are placed in the sawed sawn into it it's going to expand it into this corners let's see how this one does I hope this will stay together a little bit better and again very careful boy because if this messes up you are out of luck jack whatever your name is you are out of luck because this if these bend over and break they're gonna expand it enough that you will not be able to get the tenon back out but yet it will not have held inside there so let's see if I've got it now I would normally not be able to see this this is a blind wedging and now it's hit the bottom and I can hear it having hit the bottom I'm going to drive it you should see this expand I hope it will you're trying to hold it and you will see that it will expand into that dovetail pocket that I have cut inside there it should be wonderful I'm going to lay it down and hit it flat because that is something I have to do because it's not enclosed here as it would be in the wood but you can see it see how it's driving up in here see how that's swinging over there when I drive this up solid alright now this is a one-way operation once you do this you are not gonna get that piece back out because see down inside here it has expanded this has expanded into here and it has locked up and you're never gonna get it apart so you want to do this one right the first time one a very important thing is with those wedges when you're splitting the wedges I just split them with a hatchet the chiken method here see them get the axe just split right down and see how that work to hold the wood on either side and split even this thin a piece in half again and hold it right like that and there we go right down the middle so you can make very very thin wedges and then trim them like that it's the chicken method of splitting I show you something though important because the wedges pegs all that sort of stuff very very important that you choose the right quality of wood and there's a problem that you get into with brashness brashness is caused in hardwoods when it grows too slowly normal wood should splinter very long splitters let me see if I can get a piece of normal Hickory I hope this is not brash Hickory cuz that would make me this is supposed to be my good example here I have a splinter this a watch here much the way this goes it should split in long fibers slowly yeah there you go that's what you want see long fibers see the way those fibers are splitting oh there we are oh not so great but it should split in long splintery fibers now here's a piece of oak much thicker watch how this splits look that that's brash wood grew too slow not good for pegs not good for much of anything in that department well I'll show you something one more thing about this X where we go back and solve our puzzle this ax here it's interesting this was given to me and it's the same brand that was used in the Lizzie Borden misadventure you can see this is uh made by the Underhill edge Tool Company so I don't know if they were kidding me or not but that was the Underhill edge Tool Company not schewe New Hampshire well let's go see how that they're ridiculous dovetail was done I have to hurry because I've spent most very time fooling with these other things how can this be a dovetail dovetailed around all four corners well it doesn't go at right angles the trick with it is is it goes diagonally and that's all there is to it see it's diagonal dovetails not a straight through dovetail they're here see how that works so it's dovetail with the tails are at a diagonal at 45 degrees to the squareness of the piece the same with the pins yeah some very very simple tricks that of course the reason that's a trick to you that makes why is that that's so dumb that is so dumb but we're used to thinking of dovetails running at right angles to a surface so we assume that's the only way it could be but Nanae let me show you something about laying this out like you know I get a pencil here because it's diagonal the centerline of this it has to be from one corner to another corner you don't mess with any kind of centerline this way make your centerline just choose two corners and that's going to be the centerline of the stinking thing so here let me get one here's one all right here's one mark two corners and those will be the ones that you gauge off of now all a dovetail is is something that's wider at the top than it is at the bottom or wider at the bottom than it is at the top depending upon whether it's the tail of the pin so what I do is use to gauge settings this gauge is set here with two little points in it to show what the top will be so here obviously I'm cutting the female because I've got a narrow point and I gauge off of here and now turn in gauge off the that same corner to do the other side and here again gauge off the one point now the other point and I've got the lines that I can then connect to make my top cross piece here so I can run lines across that will be the the slots there we go all right and then use Ed said there you go see how nice that is so there's those diagonal lines I marked across with the narrow gap at the top now I have another gauge that is set wider and that can go down here at the bottom alright and it's again set wider and that will should make the wide flaring place there you go to make the WOD bottom of that I think you get it anyway these are some of the novelist tales of all and you can find out how to make of it you work on it I appreciate you joining me Roy Underhill here in the wood right shop so long [Music] sube honey up to the light and you see nothing but pure natural u.s. grade-a clover honey light golden as nutritious as honey can be and it's filtered for consistent quality maybe your family won't know that when they enjoy the natural sweetness of soupy honey but you'll know sube honey purity you can see and taste there are some drips you can't do anything about but you won't have to worry about drips again if you're on a born faucet because of our exclusive wireless cartridge Moen faucets lasts a lifetime that's why we give them a lifetime limited warranty against leaks and drips so you won't be bothered 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Channel: Heather Majcherek

Views: 72,428

Rating: 4.8832774 out of 5

Keywords: woodright, shop, dovetales

Id: NsOfj3I2yx8

Length: 27min 49sec (1669 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2019