Dovetail knife

[Christophe Mineau]

As part for my dovetail making set I made as a present for my daughter, here is the dovetail knife :

I started with a piece of sweedish steel blade I have around, and I rough cut with an angle grinder an arrow shape.
I took great attention to avoid ruining the temper, so I frequently blowed compressed air on to the piece while it was hold on the vise.
Then I refined the shape on a high speed bench grinder, dipping the piece into water to cool it down.


I worked the dual bevels on the bench grinder, free hand.


And then I switched to the diamond stones, 400, 1000 and 2000 grits.


Finished the honing on the leather strop.


I turned a stylus shape handle out of a nice piece of curly ash (actually a broom handle, but by all means a nice piece of wood )
I turned on the metal lathe a brass ferrule.


And here is the finished product :



Note that the ferrule is capped, and has a square hole, the size of te blade shaft. I wanted the blade to be supported by the ferrule. This may not be necessary, but it gives it a nice touch.

[Philip Davies]

Exquisite! And remarkable that an old broom handle should have such a beautiful grain. I have never seen that in ash. I think you are right to support the blade with a ferrule. Mine does not have one and short grain loosened the blade eventually.

[DIYer]

Thanks Christophe Mineau! We've added your Dovetail Knife to our Knife Making category,
as well as to your builder page: Christophe Mineau's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Dovetail Knife by Christophe Mineau

tags: dovetail, knife

[Christophe Mineau]

Thanks Phil !
To be honest, it's not an old broom, it's even a brand new one. One day I was in a gardening store and I saw this outdoor broom with stunning handle. I had no need of a broom but I purchased it right away, I think I could have bite if someone would have put a hand on it before me ...
I always have a look at the tool handles, it's often the axes or pick handles that are made out of ash and sometimes have nice figured wood.

[wizard69]

You are most fortunate to find a wood handle of such character on a broom. I don't think I've ever seen a nice looking broom handle around here that wasn't being sold as art.

As for the knife itself, what a piece of art. Looks fantastic. I'm missing with respect to scale though, a scale (ruler) in one of the photos might help with overall size. The knife looks small, almost pen like. As such I expect to see some really fine dovetails made with this set.

Thanks Phil !
To be honest, it's not an old broom, it's even a brand new one. One day I was in a gardening store and I saw this outdoor broom with stunning handle. I had no need of a broom but I purchased it right away, I think I could have bite if someone would have put a hand on it before me ...
I always have a look at the tool handles, it's often the axes or pick handles that are made out of ash and sometimes have nice figured wood.

[Christophe Mineau]

I'm missing with respect to scale though, a scale (ruler) in one of the photos might help with overall size. The knife looks small, almost pen like.

Thanks for the compliment Mr Wizard, I don't have the box anymore, but if I remember well, the box is around 240mm long.
What I regret with the knife is the blade size, it could have been longer, but I am short in that piece of sweedish steel.
Next time, I will do one for myself, probably longer.

[Philip Davies]

Thanks Phil !
To be honest, it's not an old broom, it's even a brand new one. One day I was in a gardening store and I saw this outdoor broom with stunning handle. I had no need of a broom but I purchased it right away, I think I could have bite if someone would have put a hand on it before me ...
I always have a look at the tool handles, it's often the axes or pick handles that are made out of ash and sometimes have nice figured wood.

I keep a stock of old handles. I used two today, on fullers I hope to use in the next few days. We refurbish tools for Africa. Nobody else wants to dispose of broken, surplus, or unwanted items. If I can realistically expect to pass them on to others, i keep them. I try not to hoard too much. Tools that could be used as weapons or for housebreaking, I destroy. The travellers call round at work to pick up scrap! So it’s easy for me to get rid of the rest. But it’s a long time since I bought a handle! Although if the tool handle has decorative grain, it’s usually too brittle for brooms, spades, axes. An old joiner I met at a Woodworking show 40 years ago had a marking knife made from a dining knife, bone handle. I copied him, but the one I posted on HMT has a machine hacksaw blade!

[ranald]

I used to have a couple of drum fulls of handles and gave away when moving house recently. I shudder to think that my neighbour used them for kindling for his chicky babes (single ladies in their 80's and 90's) to whom he supplies firewood. They are too old/frail to cut kindling let alone wood. He used about 30 of 4 metre+ by 200 mm by 22mm Pine shelving for such. I really didn't want to know but I couldn't take everything with me. I could really use some solid shelving now. lol

Years ago, I was working on a farm and a teenager commented on an unusual small mattock handle I had. I told him I made it from Eucalypt/ Corymbia Sp. and he said I could have bought the whole new tool for $15. " Ah, but they are of cheap Chinese steel with a cruddy handle and I like my old 'proper quality' tools". He heard but not sure if he listened. I like the quality of old tools made in US, England and Australia etc.
Cheers