Hit 200 dovetail joints this morning without counting

I was finishing up a cherry cabinet drawer and realized I'd just cut my 200th dovetail joint without even thinking about it. Took me three years of practice to get to where they're second nature, and that milestone just snuck up on me. Anyone else have a skill that suddenly clicked after months of frustration?

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miles5813mo ago

Nah I gotta push back on that a little. Counting by the joint makes way more sense to me since each drawer side connection is one joint regardless of how many pins you cut into it. But honestly the real question here is what kind of dovetails are we talking about because through dovetails take way more precision than half blinds in my experience. When you say yours clicked, was it the layout that got easier or the actual sawing and chiseling that finally felt natural? Because I'm stuck on the chisel work still and could use some insight on what finally made that part click for you.

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the_wyatt3mo ago

Wait are you counting dovetails by the joint or by the tail? I always thought a single dovetail joint has multiple tails and pins depending on how many you cut in that one connection. Like if you cut a drawer with four tails that's still one joint not four. Either way 200 is a solid milestone. I remember when my half blind dovetails stopped looking like I did them with a hammer and chisel in the dark.

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