Tom,

My .02 for free here.  I learned to cut half-blind dovetails when taking a class
from Lonnie Bird.  He does not use a skew chisel when cutting these dovetails,
instead he uses a 1/8 inch chisel to accomplish the same purpose of getting into
the corners of the sockets.  His 1/8 inch chisel is a bit different though.  He
had a 1/4 inch chisel that he had ground to 1/8 inch wide for an inch or so up
from the tip.  He said he did this because a 1/8 inch chisel is so narrow that
it tends to roll in the fingers (he holds, and taught us to hold the chisel by
the blade close to the tip using the thumb and first two fingers), whereas a 1/4
inch chisel does not tend to roll but easily stays flat in the hand.  I had an
1/4 inch Two Cherries chisel that I ground in the same fashion and that's what I
use when cutting half-blind dovetails and it works a treat.  I don't own narrow
skew chisels for cutting dovetails as there is no need with this modified tool.

Cheers,
John

John M. Johnston
jmjhnstn@m...
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