My friend Joel Wakeman came by the other day to teach me how to handcut dovetail joints.  Ive always done them with the router and I thought it would be educational to learn how to do them the old fashioned way. My assistant Lauren has been really interested in learning how to use hand tools and I thought she would enjoy such a lesson as well.

Joel teaches Lauren the intricacies of dovetail joinery.

Joel is seen here using my super fine tooth Japanese hand saw.  Cuts like butter.

Lauren cleans out the shoulders with a mallet (not pictured) and chisel.

Here is my practice hand cut dovetail joint.  Not as good as the master but not too shabby.  Im happy to add this skill to my repertoir!

Joel Wakeman is nearly done with his chaboo!  He has built one from scratch, re-interpreting my design using salvaged materials.

Joel works a lot with hand tools and even mills his wood by hand without a jointer/planer.  These are hand cut dovetails!  Very impressive.  I like how he makes the material appear lighter and thinner by tapering it out towards the edge.

Joel and I actually went to the same school, the Rhode Island School of Design.  If I hadnt quit we would have been in the industrial design program together.  Its interesting to see what I missed out on by leaving school and working instead.  I asked him to come by my shop the other day and show me how to mill wood with only hand tools.  I brought out an old chunk of mahogany i had laying around the shop and he taught my apprentice Lauren and I how to flatten the face and then true up a square edge by hand.

Even though I will continue to mill wood by machine for most applications it was nice to do it by hand to really feel the material.  I got out my really nice Japanese handplane which cuts on the pull, not the push.  It felt really smooth and controlled on the mahogany and made really nice shavings.  So nice that Lauren took some home with her.  She really enjoyed using the hand tools so I think ill teach her how to use a chisel safely next chance i get Thanks for the lessons Joel.

You can see Joel’s work on the website for his company, Integration Workshop. You will see that the images on his site are very well photographed.  His wife is a very talented photographer and also has an unrelated talent for falling asleep while standing.