Parallock

Dovetails

The dovetail joint is famous for its tensile strength and organic connection - no nails or screws needed - The name 'dovetail' comes from the appearance of the joint, which resembles the triangle shape of a bird's tail.

They could be found inside drawers or unseen places on the piece.


















History
  The Dovetail joint technique probably pre-dates written history. Some of the earliest known examples of the dovetail joint are in ancient Egyptian furniture entombed with mummies dating from First Dynasty, other examples of dovetail joints were made thousands of years ago and were discovered in the burials of ancient Chinese emperors. These early dovetail joints were made by skilled woodworkers using hand saws and chisels.

Tool
  Hand saws like dozuki or western back saw, coping saw and chisels. To achieve this joint, tiny angled saw cuts were carefully made, followed by delicate refinement by a sharpened chisel on both sides to avoid splintering.
 we can also use router with dovetail jig and band saw.



The advantages of the dovetail joint are that it is the strongest of all joints, has a large gluing area, is interlocking, resists being pulled apart, looks attractive, and would hold together even without glue.

The disadvantages of dovetail joints are that they can be fairly difficult to mark out and cut, and if they are made badly these joints lose the advantages listed above. 

when using router to do the dove tail joint, we use two bits in order to prevent tear out.