To those who don’t know: this is Jim Kingshott of “Making and modifying Woodworking tools fame”. The man who resurrected infill planemaking single handedly. Also believed to be the last craftsman trained and actuallyworked as a journeyman during Arts&Crafts period.
Wow, the secret dovetail joint! 😍😍 What a breathtakingly beautiful joint! This was a fascinating, informative, drool-worthy video. The excellent traing this man acquired as an apprentice, and its “sheepskin”: his exquisite, handmade, inlaid, dovetailed toolbox. Wow.
Well I’m part of today’s generation and here I am learning new skills thanks to RU-vid. How about you stop making it seem there is a generational gap to educational quality, and start sharing information so the people who learn after you can carry the trade forward.
This 55 minutes felt like 15…so many excellent tips given through stories of his experiences woodworking. The camera work was PERFECT! So many woodworking videos don’t show enough closeups. Thank you for sharing this!
My father trained as a carpenter and joiner in the 1940s as well. He once said he had done so many thousands of dovetails that he did them purely by eye. I wasn't entirely sure he wasn't pulling my leg, but I guess Jim confirms it. My father also had a black tool chest that he made as an apprentice, but not being a cabinet maker and therefore having on occasions to take it onsite, it was far less fancy. Not much in this video that my Dad would have done differently, except using a coping saw to rough out waste. Note also that the coping saw is set with the teeth facing the handle, something that some prominent youtubers have called 'rubbish'. Well, they aint a patch on this guy.
How sad thatJim is no longer with us .A tragic loss to the craftsman of the past.Wonderful that VHS video’s exist of many similar lessons.His workshop at his house should be a shrine for him.Anyone who has a piece of his furniture should be honoured to touch and admire his skill and presence in it.
This is so refreshing. We always had to make jigs and tools. We are spoiled now with the array of tools and jigs. When you watch these old films you can't help waiting for them to say at the end, don't forget to hit that subscribe button. :)
@@DovetailtimI've loved watching these this morning. Thanks for posting them. So refreshing and calming. We've gained so much in this digital age - being able to get our hands on so much gear - but watching and listening to Mr Kingshott has really highlighted what we have lost. I miss these guys. He reminds me so much of my grandfather! Thanks again.
Probably the best instructive video I’ve seen. 60 years ago my GCE Woodwork practical was the secret mitre dovetail I’d never cut one and my woodwork master had said it would be very unlikely I would get one. Well I did and realised I would have to cut the pins first. I passed.
This video is invaluable. There are probably not many videos in existence of a real, old school, lifelong career cabinet maker who learned from generations of masters in the same craft. Great respect to woodwork teachers, my uncle was one, but this man was at a whole other level.
Really appreciate your showing how to do it all manually with simple tools. Far too many wood working chanels that just go "oh it's easy" and walk into their massive barn full of new shiny industrial powertools no hobbyest could ever justify.
Always a pleasure to watch and learn from a true master, thankyou Jim brought back memories of my granddad showing me how to use and maintain old tools my uncle found at flea markets during the school holidays
And what exactly is that proper method? How am I supposed to sleep at night now knowing I could be improperly adorning my apron?! Also, what kind of apron are we talking about?
He was very much old school, were the apron was a status symbol which you wore proudly as a cabinet maker, me I can't stand them and never wear them. so on his course on Japanese tools first thing we had to do was put on these white aprons which he supplied, of course as I never wear them and hated them I put mine on wrong which was to tied the apron string round the front of the apron this he told me was wrong and that the string is tied under the front of the apron so as not to get tangled up in your work.Also we was not allowed to use tape measures as not accurate enough in his mind. @@devinteske
All the other blokes on YT I watch about cutting dovetails, they have left off a few tips that we garner from watching this English gentleman. Thanks for posting these.
I've been learning hand tool woodworking since the pandemic and it has been quite the journey. Thank you so much for sharing this kind of amazing content. So many good tips that come from decades of experience. I'm in awe and deeply grateful.
Brilliant. All of it! I’ve just watched all three of his videos that you’ve published. Would watch more if you have them. Fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
This guy taught me how to sharpen all my tools . Using his book . Also I say Keith Rowley taught me how to turn wood using his book What craftsman these guys were.
I didn't watch it all the way through but I could tell you were old school and highly skilled of the bat. Thanks for sharing your knowledge with others.
The sockets had more wood to remove at the end of the tails. He’s absolutely right about the chamfer. My expert tip for the pilgrim woodworker. Buy a dt saw that’s fits your hand well western style. Practice with hardwood like oak and a soft spongy wood like mahogany. Stay away from pine it might be cheap but it’s not all that friendly.
This is great, thanks for uploading, seems like he would have been a pleasure to work alongside and learn from. That tool chest is a work of art. I'm glad he was careful to only mark the waste, i've never liked the more modern practice of scribing/marking across the whole piece so that layout lines are visible at the bottom of the pins and tails when the work is finished like a decorative feature, this only seems to be a thing for dovetails, i cant think of any other joinery method where it is acceptable to have layout lines visible when finished. Nice tip with the chalk, and that chisel seemed beyond sharp.
Love this guy! He's the genuine article! Love his northern English accent! Love his tool box! So, now he could say he can fly to the moon, flapping his saw for wings; all I can say is, "would you like me to sharpen your saw for better grip on the air? I'll do it for nothing!! Oh! I really should say how wonderful the camera man did here! Such fine close in views without this, Uncle Jim might a s well stayed home!!
The craftsmanship is amazing. 37:51 Those chisels must be scary sharp, they are going through mahogany like a hot knife through butter! Thankyou for this amazing and informative video 🙂
So happy I stumbled upon this video! Very good information as I go from hand tool research (and tool kit assembly) to some actual projects, and my first will be a hanging tool cabinet to hold many of my hand tools: planes, chisels, saws, scrapers, gauges, etc.. I plan on dovetails to join my carcass. I’m really enjoying your uncle’s way of explaining the process. Thank you. Liked and subscribed!
You don’t need all that fancy stuff , dewalt and Milwaukee have nice plastic tool chests with plastic cutouts for your tools 😂 I’m only joking. The only shame is this very high skilled craftsmanship is being lost, I’ve done it all my life but not past it on for years, so sad but thanks for putting all this on video that will last forever, thanks jim Ive subbed
His chisels are waaay more sharp than mine. After several years of woodworking, I still learn more from this master. Was this shot on film? Or Plumbicon tubes? Looks great. Vignette of lens, too.
The two pieces rotate together. He makes special note to point out the slope at the end-grain which is a lie. The pin enters from the top but has a face that implies the wood behind it is in the same shape (making you think it cannot enter from the top but has to be slid in, which is of-course impossible due to the dove-tail shape making it impossible to slide in). Secondly, there is a hollow behind the halving joint that allows the two pieces to cleverly rotate together. There is a lot of empty space and the false-front on the pin to make it look impossible to assemble together mean this would be extremely week and the large scale is required to pass off the trickery. I am so sorry for ruining the magic. Please don’t hurt me.
@@devinteske This isn't how that joint is made - it's actually a joint from Japanese carpentry, which Jim Kingshott was a proponent of (hence showing both a Japanese saw and using Japanese chisels). I've seen it called, variously, a double dovetail, double dovetail tenon, rising dovetail or Sumiyoshi (I don't know much about Japanese carpentry, so can't attest to how accurate or appropriate this last term is, only that I've seen it called that). The key to it is that you can't see that the dovetail isn't a consistent thickness: the part that you can see at the front, facing the camera is the thinnest part of the dovetail. The mortise for the dovetail tenon slopes downward like a ramp towards the the cheek of the ordinary halving joint, so that the gap between the two is a wedge with the thickest part at the top/front. The walls of the dovetail mortise are continued at the same angle but go another 2-3 times as deep as the depth of the dovetail that we see at the end. The dovetail tennon then is also much thicker than it looks and a corresponding wedge. It's assembled by putting the dovetail in much further down, which then follows the ramp up, like a sliding dovetail joint, but sliding both horizontally and vertically, which is presumably why it's sometimes called a rising dovetail. This explanation isn't great and probably quite convoluted, but it's quite difficult to put into words properly. Search for any of the terms mentioned (rising dovetail etc.) on here and you'll see examples of people making them.
Thanks for that. It took nearly an hour. I suppose you would work faster if you weren't explaining but how long would you expect an ordinary drawer to take i.e. 4 dovetailed joints?
Thanks for your question! I was shown these videos when I was in college studying joinery and cabinetmaking by my teacher during lunchtime, I fell in love with Jim and purchased all his videos and books. Recently I have been showing them to some of my own students now that I teach joinery!
First off: straight baller move uploading these with the copyright warning 😄 Second: Did this bloke ever do one on card scraping? Three: cease and desist Tage Frid. Ive got no use for that tasteless Dane. 👎
On using scrapers, or sharpening the scrapers? It's the latter that presents the greater challenge, for my money, and is by far the most tedious. Once you're done sharpening, finally, scrape, scrape away. And get a Stanley No. 80-type cabinet scraper-so much better, especially if you've got a lot of heavy scraping ahead of you, and you value the use of your hands. I remember the first time I used one, having previously thought they were largely superfluous, since you could just scrape with cards. I had one and it sat around unused for some years, until one day I was sharpening my scrapers and thought, "What the hell-I'll do the No. 80's blade too." Oh, no! It's not superfluous! It was like a revelation.
Ah excellent, his website (richardkell.co.uk) has lots of idiosyncratic tools on it.. a student of mine recently bought his honing guide, i think from workshop heaven, and loves it.
