Comments on: French Dovetails or Sliding Dovetails

By: bobcashman

bobcashman — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 04:55:38 +0000

French Dovetails? Sliding Dovetails? I don’t know know about the “french” dovetail — what I know about “sliding dovetails is that “All Dovetails Slide.” I know I am tilting at windmills, but the proper name for what is commonly called a “sliding dovetail” is: “housed dovetail.” A tapered one of the same is “housed tapered dovetail.” Back in school Lance was adamant about terminology.

Call a half lap dovetail a “half blind” dovetail and you would hear pretty quickly that “no dovetails can see.” No smile, no joke, but true.

As “Full blind” is properly a secret or secret miter dovetail.

And lest we forget, cabinets don’t have sides, they have ends.

The list goes on. LIke I said, I know I am tilting at windmills, but mis-use of terminology makes me mad.

Don’t even start on the mis-use of “dock” in the marine world. Most use the verb correctly, but the noun has lost its meaning to the point of my dismay.

Enjoy your french.

Bob

By: BernieB

BernieB — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:19:55 +0000

Could name this have any relationship to “French Cleat”?

By: JorgeG

JorgeG — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 03:45:38 +0000

Not a soap box, this pisses me off too. Another example is the decimal notation in Europe. In the scientific as well as decimal notation, whole number have always been separated in the thousands by a comma and the decimal fractions by a period. Well some idiot decided or got his nomenclature confused and now they are separating thousands with a period and fractions with a comma. I don’t know who or whom were the idiots who decided to change this and why the rest of the sheep followed this moronic notation, but it really pisses me off to no end. As they saying goes, if it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

By: Mark Hochstein

Mark Hochstein — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 22:23:35 +0000

Not dividing them. My bench is not against a wall. Therefor I can, and do, work on both sides of it and it is much more convenient to be able to pull the drawer open from regardless of which side of the bench I’m working on.

By: LKWangerin

LKWangerin — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:31:29 +0000

My sense is that “French-dovetail” is a typical commentary on anything French that, without fail, occurs in British humor. In the late 1960′s I worked for Gillette, Boston as an industrial engineer designing assembly lines with many wood fixtures. They were quick set-up and take down affairs because of their seasonal nature. Gillette had full in-house shop facilities including carpenters, mill wrights, tin smiths, and machinists, fully staffed and very capable. While watching my first installation, I was introduced to the “Philadelphia-screwdriver!” It was a graphic and grand demonstration, driving screws with a hammer! Wonder if Philadelphia has a “Boston-screwdriver?” They most certainly came up with the “Yankee” screwdriver. Any humor there?

By: BLZeebub

BLZeebub — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:54:49 +0000

On my bench I can access the drawers from both sides as well. I copied the idea from Robert Whitley, a Pennsylvania studio furniture maker who also does killer reproductions. Anyway. His as well as mine also have lids [dust covers] on some of the drawers as they can be used as a series of supports for wide boards held in the face vise [like board jacks]. Mine are machine dovetailed and peruse the NK style of drawer construction. A bit of a pain to produce as they are almost “stick” built but they work fabulously.

always,
the dark one…

By: jmesser

jmesser — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 01:00:58 +0000

The first time I saw the term French dovetails was in Moser’s 2nd edition of “How to Build Shaker Furniture.” I spent a ton of time trying to figure out the difference between sliding dovetails and the beret-wearing, Gauloise-smoking variety. Like an idiot.

By: raweber

raweber — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:17:13 +0000

A nomenclature data point – a buddy who sells furniture was the first time I ever heard French Dovetail. I asked him what the heck he was talking about and when he described it I realized he was talking about a standard sliding dovetail. Also, what we think of as normal dovetails, apparently in the furniture industry they are referred to as “English dovetails.”

By: Glen D. Huey

Glen D. Huey — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 23:00:52 +0000

Hey Mitch,

I decided that I wanted to apply my fronts to drawer boxes. Because sliding dovetails attach directly to drawer fronts, I had to pass on that idea. Unless, that is, something changes.

By: Glen D. Huey

Glen D. Huey — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 22:57:56 +0000

Great picture, Mark. Not sure I can share it, but I will check. Obviously Amish furnituremakers, at least some of them, have CNC available. Are you dividing your drawers at the center to make use of drawer contents depending on what side of your bench you’re on? Is there a reason you cannot access everything in the drawer from either side of your bench?