hi, i am john bullar, in this video i am going to tell you fromstart to finish how to make a lapped or half-blind dovetail joint. there is also information on how to make manymore joints in my new book 'the complete guide to joint-making' the half-blind is the kind of joint you willsee on a chest of drawers - or you won't see it until you pull the drawer open and havea look at the sides. start by planing the wood flat on the facesand square on the edges, and cutting square ends.
the tools i use are the dovetail saw, markinggages, a fine knife or scalpel, and sharp bevel-edged chisels. the two main types of cutting gauge are thetraditional wooden one and the more modern metal one with fine adjuster. i am going to cut the tails on the ash woodand the sockets on this dark coloured walnut. because the tails won't reach the full depthof the wood i will make the base line for the sockets about 3/4 of the depth of thewalnut. the metal marking gauge has a cutting diskon the end that leaves a clean line. i take the ash and mark the shoulder linefor the tails at the same depth as the depth
of the sockets. i put the ash in the vice to mark the gapsbetween tails. i make one about 15mm from each end, one in the middle and one about halfway between each of those. that should do it. i'm cutting the sides of the tails at a slight angle
about 1 in 7 is best cut the ends off each side. there we have the saw-cuts for all the dovetails. i chop the gaps between the tails in two stages. firstly ahead of the line to remove the waste then i sit the chisel tip in the knife mark
so it cuts just on the line. set the walnut in the vice to mark the outlineof the sockets from the tails. use the tails as a template to mark the sizeand shape of each socket. the depth of the socket is going to be setto the thickness of tails that will fit in it. so use the marking gauge again for that.
and then make some lines to show the sidesof each socket. next i am going to chop out the tails first of all i am going to need to clamp thewalnut onto a backing board and put that firmly in the vice. the saw cut is positioned just against theknife line so that the knife line itself forms the edgeof the finished saw cut. keep the saw blade vertical but tilt it sideways to follow the bevel of the dovetail socket.
now chop into the long grain at the base then chop into the end grain on the end of each socket. just keep on repeating these chops. a sharp chisel,
that's what you must have. chop down again. pare the sides. use a fine chisel to get into the corners to clean them out, then see if the tails will fit. not quite, there's a little tight bit in thatcorner there. have another go. just knock it in.
and there we go. you will find full details of how to makethis half-blind dovetail and many other woodworking joints in my new book' the complete guide to joint-making'. thank you for watching this video, i hopeit was useful.