Hi Juju,
If you go back to the first posting by Mrs S.
An indepth posting on the mouse.
A light hearted gab about chocolate biscuits.
You must have missed that bit.
cheers
Alan

Mrs S,
Chocolate biscuits. Well Mrs S, if you are a chocoholic I could have some very interesting information for you soon. We, sorry, Barbara the boss, found a wonderful site on the web, and they make amazing chocolates.

We have a box of hand made chocolates delivered once a month, and they are just, well, very very tasty. Best ones we have ever tasted.

She is returning from a jolly jaunt soon and I'll pass on the info on here return.

Oh., I think I will have one now. O yes, very nice.

ha ha

Alan.

Welcome Stee
cheers
Alan

Hi Robert,
Welcome. Love you web site.
cheers
Alan

Welcome Rich
great place to learn here.
cheers
Alan

Canoek.
Lovely job.
Must have been one heck of a place to work.
What views. Time to sit and think and just enjoy whats there.
Alan.

Solo,
Great work. I think this could be my next skill building exercise.
cheers
Alan

Hi Guys,
love the textures. I would hazard a guess that the box will feet was made in American black walnut. Looks good.
cheers
Alan

Hi Guys,
I love starting with a pencil and paper, then because at present I am working on a small jewellery box, I'll make a very rought balsa wood model, then its off to sketchup to get an idea of what colour woods look good together.

I then use a 2d package for a scale printable model for the dovetail joints that i require.

cheers

Alan

Hi Fred,
I have found working on small measurements that the follow me and intersect with model tool do not work effectively.

My solution is to build the model, group it, then scale up x10 or 100 and it works a treat.
I then scale down again when the operation has been completed.

cheers
Alan.
http://www.hand-cut-dovetails.com

Welcome Tina
cheers
Alan

Hi Gideon
No knowledge on that topic. Sorry about that.
cheers
Alan

Hi Charlie
Back from my holiday in Nice, France hence the delay in replying. What weather and what a lovely location. Will certainly be returning.
Thanks for the comments about the models. Sketchup certainly does the job for me.

With regard to the Japanese marking knife section. Originally there was a link to those pages but since I have been paid by British Woodworking for the information I felt that it would be wrong of me to then provide the information for free.

The method of using the front edge of the knife I came upon by pure accident whilst working away one day. For me it is the most efficient method of marking a shoulder line.

If you want further info on this I would happy send the stuff through via private email.

cheers
Alan

Thankyou gentlemen,
The photo of the box was taken at a professional studio.
And yep something next to it would have been handy.

A glass of wine maybe.

cheers
Alan

For the woodworkers that were following this link.
I now have a web page up and running on the dovetailing topic. Its only just opened and I now have a thread in the Newbie formum called dovetails at their best.

cheers
Alan
http://www.hand-cut-dovetails.com

This is one style of marking knife that I use.
I will post the other design next week.
cheers
Alan
Dovetail Marking Blade Download Model

Hi Eric,
At the time of making this box in 2003 I could not find a dovetail template on the market that allowed me to mark ALL parts of the dovetail joint by hand AND with a knife. All important parts of cutting dovetails by hand. I am not aware of any template on the market that will allow me to do so.

I have made two dovetail templates and this posting deals with the first one. I call this one ‘the right-angle square’

This allows the maker to mark all the relevant ‘right angle’ knife lines for both the through and lapped dovetail joint.

I will post the second template in a few days in between decorating and grandchild minding.

So what are the important elements here.

a I would recommend a light coloured close grained timber. Sycamore is ideal because the light ‘rebate’ is a benefit when marking some of the lines. This will become apparent when it is actually used.

note. I did make one in mahogany and the sycamore one was much superior.

There are two important surfaces to the wooden component. The face side and face edge. I would suggest that you select timber that allows you to plane these along their complete length
in one direction only.

b I had an old Stanley Rathbone 6” rule where the numbers were well and truly faded. Apart from this it was not damaged along the parallel edges.

A new rule cost very little. It will make this template, plus the other one I will be posting at a later date.

Rules over here are sold in two thickness that I am aware of. 1mm and 0.5mm

It is important that you purchase one that is only 0.5mm thick. Again the reason for this will become apparent when marking out the dovetails.

c practice the marking out of the rebate on the ‘practice piece’ to ensure you get the feel of
making a tight rebate.

d Use a knife when marking out the rebate that has a single bevel AND has a ‘front bevel’ as illustrated in the attached model of a marking knife.

e When marking out the rebate use the knife with the ‘bevelled edge’ facing the waste wood.

f Set up your router (or marking gauge) so the depth of the rebate is less than the thickness of the rule. This is the advantage of having a ‘practice piece’. Say 0.3mm. You need the rule to protrude fractionally to allow you to check how square this template is will an engineers try-square.

g The rule is glued to the timber using Araldite.

Now in all probability there is some stuff here that needs clarifications.

Fire away.

Cheers

Alan
New and Reground Download Model
Dovetail Template Sq.006 Download Model

Hi Eric,
Sometime soon I will be writing to Fine Woodworking magazine published in USA, to see if they are interested in my methods of producing dovetails to this standard. ('dovetails at their best' was the judges comments when I managed a silver award in the Furniture & Cabinet making mazagine annual competition)

I am in the process of putting together a dvd on making the through and lapped dovetail probably called 'my secrets to successful dovetailing'it's a project that has really interested me more so since I came across sketchup in August last year. It really has enabled me to in my view clearly get a point across. Providing of course I don't place the grain in the wrong direction when texturing!! Thanks for that.

What interets me is the fact that the subject has been written about both in this country and America but so much has been missed out probably because of lack of space. A magazine article on the subject not so long ago used photoshop or similar software to hide the gaps. What a laugh.

If you want to draw your project in sketchup, in millimitres if thats okay with you, I will do a bit of preparation and talk you through it.

Alan

Gully
Thanks again.
I'll look at posting in isometric view in future.

Gully
Thanks for the tip.
I prefer the angle that you saved the image at compared to my posting.
Do you work on any particular angle for something like this?
Alan.