⚠ Warning: Cancer & Reproductive Harm. See P65warnings.ca.gov for more info. Cutting tools may shatter. Always wear appropriate safety equipment.

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If you are a beginner, we recommend our sister site, Common Woodworking, which takes you through how to make a dovetail step by step:

It’s not really a good habit to gang up dovetails. In many cases ganging them up together can result in both dovetails being out of square or misaligned or both and thereby the two dovetails end up being different sizes. Also, the very practice we need when we begin dovetailing is denied by introducing something we never really do in practice.

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Paul Sellers & Company Ltd-Paul Sellers & Company Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales with the company number 10347569. The company's registered address is Accsol House High Street, Johnstown, Wrexham, LL14 2SH, United Kingdom.

We tend not to use the coping saw method for the majority of fine woodwork and furniture making, as it is not as precise and it takes quite a bit of practice to get as accurate as Paul is at it. There is also risk of tear-out. So for fine work we would use the method as seen in our making a dovetail video above. Paul might use a coping saw for rougher carpentry, but the cuts are consistently finer when done with the chisel.

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