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I finally figured out why my dovetails looked rough on pine but clean on oak
I cut maybe 40 dovetails on white oak over the past few months and they came out tight and clean every time, but the same setup on a pine drawer box last week looked like I chewed the pins with my teeth. Turns out my chisels were sharp enough to slice oak but were crushing the soft earlywood in the pine instead of cutting it. Anyone else run into this, and do you keep a separate honing routine just for softwoods?
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danielhenderson19d ago
Sharpened a chisel last month and sliced through a pine board like warm butter, then tried the same edge on some scrap maple and it just bounced off. Kinda blew my mind that one edge can't do both jobs well. Now I keep a strop handy and touch up way more often when I'm working softwood.
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