Furniture Dovetail Joints

Normally you use it to join two pieces of wood at 90 degrees.

Furniture dovetail joints. Jan 30 2014 furniture detective columnist fred taylor says in an effort to determine the range of the age of a piece of furniture we have the beginnings of a built in time line if the piece has drawers. The dovetail joint is a highly skilled bit of cabinet making and is extremely strong and interlocks securely. It may be a squash that was born from. It is a five sided box that must fit perfectly with.

Where the wood sections are very slim 466 6 the joint can be reinforced by forming a step to. A drawer is a fairly difficult thing to build when you get right down to it. It has room for hide cables in the back for using the laptop. Most quality pieces of antique furniture will have a dovetail joint in the drawer construction as it was a very early form of construction but was so successful it was used for many 100s of years.

You insert one end of a piece into a hole in the other piece you call the end of the first piece a. Dovetails are interlocking carved wood joints used in cabinetry to connect two pieces of wood drawer fronts and sides cabinet or. Some classic furniture pieces utilized sliding dovetail joinery for wooden drawer slides which allows the drawer to slide in and out but with no up. This joint is simple and strong.

How to identify furniture of the 1800s by its dovetailing. The earliest examples are from furniture placed with mummies in egypt thousands of years ago and also in the burials of ancient chinese emperors. Figure 466 1 is a tenon on the rail 466 2 shows a tenon on the post and 466 5 a dovetail bridle joint. Mortise and tenon woodworking joints one of the strongest woodworking joints is the mortise and tenon joint.

Woodworkers have used it for many years. Top back rail joints are illustrated in 466. Figure 466 3 shows a shaped. A desk made from oak wood.

The name dovetail comes from the appearance of the joint resembling the triangle shape of a bird s tail. The dovetail joint got its name because of its similarity to the shape of a birds tail. A dovetail joint or simply dovetail is a joinery technique most commonly used in woodworking joinery carpentry including furniture cabinets log buildings and traditional timber framing noted for its resistance to being pulled apart tensile strength the dovetail joint is commonly used to join the sides of a drawer to the front a series of pins cut to extend from the end of one board. A sliding dovetail joint consists of a long groove with angled sides to serve as the tail for the sliding dovetail joint while a corresponding long pin is cut into the end of the adjoining board.

Hand cut dovetails can date an older american piece to before 1890 although hobbyists and specialty makers still use them. This construction detail is your first key to the piece s age and quality of craftsmanship.