PSA: I finally trimmed my 100th dovetail joint by hand and stopped caring about perfect gaps

After hitting 100 hand-cut dovetails last Saturday I realized the tiny gaps I used to stress over actually give the piece character and nobody notices them but me, has anyone else found that chasing perfection just slows you down?

2 comments

2 Comments

burns.richard10d ago

My 50th joint still looks like it was cut by a blind squirrel.

anna56710d ago

Oh man, @burns.richard, that's rough but I totally get it. Practice is never a straight line, some days you're just fighting the wood. I think it's more about the feel than the look anyway, you know? A clean cut is nice but a tight smoke is what matters. Keep at it and the squirrel will find its eyes eventually.