Amish Originals Furniture Co.: Plane Speaking - Dovetail Joinery

You've heard the sage adage, "Necessity is the mother of invention."  Well, thousands of years ago, woodworkers tackled the design challenge of finding a way to make a right angle joint that could bear the stress of use and the stress of the environment. (You know, long before air conditioners, humidifers, and furnaces.) As we've mentioned before, even though you have beautiful hardwood furniture in your home, wood and water are still intricately connected. In spite of being sawed and shaped, there is still a lot of activity on a molecular level going on inside your furniture, including expansion and contraction in response to the immediate environment.

A dovetail joint is, according to woodworking.com: a very strong joint formed by mating one or more angled, fan-shaped "pins" to correspondingly sized and shaped notches, called "tails." The joinery can be visible from both sides (through), from only one side (half blind), or invisible (blind). 

Archaeologists have found evidence of dovetail joinery in ancient tombs in both Egypt and China. Pioneers in the new world of America built cabins using dovetail joinery. And, craftsmen since the 17th century have used dovetail joinery to secure the neck to the headlock on stringed instruments like mandolins and violins.  Today, experts use the construction and style of dovetail joints to determine the age and era of antiques.

A dovetail joint gets its name from its appearance - it looks like a bird's tail.  The dovetail joint works because the two interlocked pieces (the pins and tails) expand and contract at the same rate. The pull of wood in response to the environment is always against the locked joint, so what we end up with is a perfect and precise fitted joint.

(Once the tails and pins are interlocked, a touch of glue seals the bond. Note - no screws, no nails.)

Though time has passed,  it's tough to top the effectiveness of the dovetail joint.  And, even in modern times, many dovetail joints are still painstakingly sawed and chiseled by hand.  With the power tools we have today, dovetail joints can also be effectively machine-cut via router and jig.  Either way, they take vision, practiced skill, planning, and composure. Even dovetail joints in today's furniture can last as long as several hundred years.

On your next trip into Amish Originals Furniture Co., pull open a drawer and look a little closer - it's nice to take a beat and appreciate the history, balance, ingenuity, and artistry in such an age-old and simple idea.

To read more...

eHow: History of Dovetail Joinery

The Harp Gallery

365 Tao: Dovetail