Half-blind dovetail blade
I opted for half-blind dovetails to hold my dresser carcass together. This is my first attempt at half-blinds, so I used some of the online tutorials I have archived on my woodworkblogipedia page on dovetailing. Those sites explain the process better than I can, so I won’t go into detail here.
Some steps I’d like to make a note of are the following:
- To begin, a 1/4″ groove for the rear panel was made on all four boards using my shop-made groove plane. Tails then needed to be located over the groove.
- I ‘gang sawed’ the tails on pairs of boards simultaneously. This was easier than I thought it would be, and it did save some time.
- I used one of the tips given by Tim Rousseau on his YouTube video about using a sharpened card scraper as a blade to chop the side of the pins that the dovetail saw misses (because the saw-cuts are at a diagonal). It worked well. So well that I can’t imagine ever not using the technique.
T r i a l & E r r o r 
For a first go at half-blind dovetails thats an ambitious project! They look fantastic.
Thanks Matt! It felt pretty comfortable – it is not as crazy as I was expecting before I started.
I was taught to use a flat edge scraper years ago(40+) by my mentor.The sharp edge will possibly cause a split.As I said have used blount edge 40 years with on splits.Not that important just mentioned it.
Thanks for the warning! I did try to mitigate against a split by using a clamp across the board – it can be seen in the image with the hammer in it.