Dovetail box

This was my first attempt at dovetail joints. I really had wanted to try my hand at joining pieces without putting ugly screws through them and I was really happy with the end result. I give all the credit to a video tutorial about making dovetail joints which I will link at the end of the post.

Cutting dovetails by hand is definitely not for the faint of heart and requires above all restraint and patience, as far as I can tell after my first attempt. I imagine with more experience one can do this much faster but I spent 2 whole evenings (after work) on this little box. It also requires patience on part of the neighbors as some chiseling is involved.

However the project was very interesting as during the process I think I realized some basic principle of woodworking (which probably applies to other crafts as well):

Always leave a little extra.

Even if you've marked all your cuts perfectly, if you directly go at them there is a higher chance of error than coming closer bit by bit. Basically the rougher (or less controllable) your method is the more space you wanna leave to account for mistakes. Once you cut something away there is no putting it back. Leave some room and get closer and closer until you shave away the last fractions of a millimeter that makes it fit perfectly.

Of course if you have precise machinery at your disposal that principle applies less strongly than when you're working with hand tools. But even in that case you might want to leave some millimeters to your target dimensions to account for the sanding process which will still take some material away.

To conclude this post a shoutout to Matt Estlea whose incredibly detailed tutorial allowed me to have this nice of a result on my first try. Kudos!