Had a chat with my grandpa's old apprentice that made me rethink my joinery

I ran into this older guy at the lumberyard last Tuesday who used to work with my grandpa back in the 70s. He pointed out how I was cutting my dovetails too tight because I wasn't accounting for wood movement the way they used to. Said Grandpa would leave a 1/16 gap on purpose and let the humidity do the work over time. It hit different because I've been fighting with swollen joints for years and never thought to just give the wood a little breathing room. Anyone else pick up old tricks from random conversations like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

blake43224d ago

Heard a similar thing about not waxing your plane sole too much. Let the wood grab a little for better control.

black.wesley24d ago

Oh man, that story hit home for me. Ran into an old timer at a flea market a few years back who noticed my leatherworking tools and started talking about how his dad never sharpened his stitching awls, just used them dull and let the fibers push aside instead of cutting through. Said the holes heal up tighter that way over time. I'd been wrestling with loose stitches for years and sure enough, switching to a duller awl fixed everything. Feels like those old guys have this whole separate manual of tricks that just never got written down anywhere.

fionagibson24d ago

My dad's idea of "sharp" was anything that didn't bounce off the wood, so I've been using dull tools my whole life without even knowing it. Guess I'm way ahead of the curve.