When everything’s put together, you can shave down the sideboards with a hand plane and leave your pins board at the perfect dimensions.

Whatever you decide, first mark the outside edges of your outermost tails. I measure in ⅛ inch from the sides and mark a line on the end grain edge.

Wipe away the squeeze out with water, then cover the joint with sawdust from your offcuts to fill any gaps and make it look seamless.

The Katz-Moses 8:1 Dovetail Jig: Not necessary, but cuts the learning curve down BIG time — and works as both a saw and chisel guide. Use the 8:1 for hardwood and 6:1 for softwood

DRAWER TIP:If your pin board will be a drawer face and is cut to final dimensions, set the marking gauge a hair thinner than the thickness of your tails.

None of it will be visible when assembled. And don’t worry. With the glue bond, the strength of the joint won’t be affected.

I’m going to walk you through how to cut half-blind dovetails by hand — and throw in a few tips to make them look like the work of an expert.

Once you’ve made indents with the dividers, place your marking knife in each indent and mark across the end grain with your square.

Sometimes called lapped or half-lapped dovetails, they’re used for drawer faces or on any piece where you don’t want exposed end grain on one side.

Cutting half-blind dovetails is similar to the regular version, with the biggest difference in how you approach the pins board.

Flip the tails board sideways in your vise and cut off the shoulders — again making sure not to cut into your tail on the show face.

Decide on the show faces and mating edges of your boards and label them. Trust me, do this now so you don’t mess up later on.

You can use a bevel gauge to mark from the ends of these lines down to the depth line, but it’s not necessary if you’re using my dovetail jig.

Tag @katzmosestools in pictures of your half-blind dovetails, check out my YouTube channel for great instructional woodworking videos…

Another masterfully crafted how-to blog post. Thanks for the care you take to be clear, concise and complete in all of your vids and blogs. I recently cut my first through dovetails using your saw guide, alignment board and instructional video. It only took me 75 years to finally try it, but it turned out pretty well using the moxon vice I built using your design. Thanks, again!

Now decide how deep you want the tails inset into the pins board. ⅔ through the thickness of the pins board is a good starting point, but it’s up to you.

A dovetail alignment board makes this SUPER easy. If something slips, the fence lets you lock the tails board right back into place.

Set your table saw blade to that height and cut it on a crosscut sled. Sneak up on your depth line to make sure it’s perfect, and check for square.

They give you the strength of regular dovetails with uninterrupted grain on one side, which is why they’re often used for drawers.

I really enjoy your posts. I used to struggle with cutting the pins accurately not getting the on the correct side of the marked line. I have now made a jig which makes it perfect every time as it takes in to account the thickness of the blade .it’s a very simple jig and very easy to make. Pete

Word to the wise, though: Clamp a piece of scrap on the back of the pins board to support the back wall. I’ve blown these out before — and some foul words might have been said.

I really enjoy your posts. I used to struggle with cutting the pins accurately not getting the on the correct side of the marked line. I have now made a jig which makes it perfect every time as it takes in to account the thickness of the blade .it’s a very simple jig and very easy to make. Pete

The pins board makes the drawer front, while two tails boards make up the sides — leaving the pins and tails only exposed on the sides as a nice decorative touch.

Taking out this much material dulls chisels pretty quick, so either set a sharp chisel aside for paring or be ready to do a bit of honing.

Another masterfully crafted how-to blog post. Thanks for the care you take to be clear, concise and complete in all of your vids and blogs. I recently cut my first through dovetails using your saw guide, alignment board and instructional video. It only took me 75 years to finally try it, but it turned out pretty well using the moxon vice I built using your design. Thanks, again!

Start clearing away the waste between the tails. I like to first give a light tap from the back side to make sure it won’t blow out, then work from the show face.

Alternate chopping down into the show face side, then in from the end grain. It’s not a big deal if you mangle the inside face — but make sure the show face lines stay clean.

It’s ok to slightly undercut the inside faces so there’s no humps in the way. As long as the lines on your showface are crisp, you’re gravy baby.

Use a coping saw to clear out the majority of the waste between the shoulders. Be careful with the depth line on the show face.

Use the marking gauge to mark a line on the end grain edge of your pins board — making sure the fence of the gauge is against the inside face (not the show face).

A lot of the process is the same as regular dovetails, so I’ll breeze through some of the steps. If you’ve never cut dovetails before, I recommend you first look at this.

Be careful about not passing the depth line on the end grain — but don’t panic if you slightly pass the depth line on the inside face. The rabbet will hide it.

Finding the spacing you want takes a little playing around with the dividers. I’ll often test it out on an offcut with the same width until I find a layout I like.

By undercutting just a hair, you make sure the tails board will seat no problem. It doesn't need to be a lot — a fraction of an inch will do.

Set your pins board in a vise and place the tails on top of the end grain. Make sure both show faces are oriented correctly.