Matt Estlea

How to Cut the Pins

December 7, 2019

In this lesson, I will show you how to accurately cut and fit the pins for the dovetails. You had some leeway when it came to cutting the tails as the main focus was getting the endgrain square. With this part, you have to focus on both matching the pitch of the dovetail and cutting perfectly plumb too.

Lesson Objectives

In this lesson, I show you how to cut right up against the line to ensure minimal cleanup after the material has been removed. We will also be covering chiselling to the baseline and cleaning up the bottom of the socket. This video mainly focuses on the specific techniques within this part of the build, however in the next video I will show you how to troubleshoot and fix problems when assembling these joints.

A Swann-Morton SM-01 scalpel blade is an amazing tool for cleaning the corners of the dovetail joint as it is extremely sharp and rigid. I find it indispensable when removing the fluffy bits left over after sawing and chiselling. These blades can be purchased directly from Swann-Morton with a retractable handle.

Alternatively, you can buy the blades individually and fit them into one of my custom marking knife handles which are available from my store. These are available in over 15 different woods and 4 different ferrule materials meaning they can be customised to suit your taste.

Don’t forget that you can also use a Katz-Moses Dovetail Guide to cut the pins of the dovetails in addition to the tails!