While most mission furniture is put together with the mortise and tenon joint, cabinet work calls for the dovetail. All the skill and accuracy possible are needed in dovetailing, and when well put together with this style of joinery, a piece of furniture should last indefinitely.

The making of joints just for practice may not be very interesting, but in the case of the dovetail it is decidedly advisable. This is what Ralph decided in Harry's case, and he was required to make first a single open joint as shown in Fig. 179. The piece marked a was laid out first, after squaring up the stock, and the shaded portion removed with back saw and chisel, sawing so close to the oblique lines that no chiselling was required on these two sides. Piece b was next fastened upright in the vise, piece a being laid over b in a horizontal position, and the form of the dovetail scribed with a knife point. In other words, the first piece cut out was used as a template for laying out the second. The form of the dovetail appeared in knife lines on the end of piece b. The laying out of b was then completed as shown at d. The darkened portions were removed with back saw and chisel, and the two parts carefully fitted and glued together.

This method of laying out dovetails is much surer than that of laying out each piece separately according to the dimensions, as any variation from the figures is duplicated on the second piece, so that they must fit.

This single dovetail was followed by a box dovetail joint comprising three dovetails on one piece, as shown in Fig. 180. The method was the same as before, the three spaces being laid out, sawed, and chiselled. After testing to see that the bottoms of the cuts were square, piece f was laid out, cut, and fitted. Seven-eighths pine is good for this practice work, but white wood gives better practice, in that it is harder, and the dovetails cannot be forced together without breaking, unless the fit is good. The harder the stock used, of course the more true this is.After successfully making these two practice joints, the boy was ready to try his skill at cabinet work. He began with a toilet box in black walnut, to be inlaid later and polished. The over-all dimensions were 11 × 7 × 3¹/₂ inches, the height, exclusive of top and bottom pieces, being three inches.

The bill of material read:

The process was as follows: Sides squared up and tested. Ends squared up and tested. Sides and ends compared to see if all were exactly the same height. Dovetail joints laid out on side pieces. (The two sides can be glued together with paper between, and cut at the same time, but on this first box the boys laid out each side separately.)

Joints cut and chiselled to line and lettered a b c d. This was to avoid confusion in laying out the ends from the sides. Ends laid out from sides with knife. Ends cut and fitted to sides. This short description meant the fitting of four box dovetails, or twelve individual dovetail joints, and it took considerable time. The four pieces were glued and fastened in hand screws over night. Particular care was taken to see that the pressure was evenly distributed, so as not to throw the box out of square.

While the glue was hardening, the top and bottom were squared up half an inch shorter and half an inch narrower than the finished box was to be.

A quarter-inch rabbet was cut on the four edges of both top and bottom. When the box was taken out of the hand screws next day the rabbet allowed top and bottom to fit sides and ends as shown in g (Fig. 181). They were glued into position, and again placed in hand screws.

This construction left a quarter-inch rabbet all around the top and bottom of the box. This space was to be filled with square pieces of white holly as an ornamental feature. While the glue was hardening a second time, these little square strips were prepared. The boys found that it would not be necessary to square up the four sides, for if one corner were made perfectly square, the other sides could be planed off after the strips were glued on.

When the hand screws were removed again, all traces of glue in the rabbet were carefully taken off with a sharp chisel. The strips of holly were sawed in the mitre box, and fitted around the four sides of top and bottom. The construction at this stage is shown at h, with the holly strips projecting beyond the walnut sides, ends and top.

The strips were fitted and glued in position, and then held in place during the drying process by winding the box in all directions with stout twine.

When thoroughly hard and dry, the whole thing was squared up, as if it were a solid block, and scraped with a steel scraper.

Gauge lines were then made for the cover, as described in the chapter on toilet boxes, sawed, fitted, hinged, and polished.

When a box like this is to be inlaid, the inlaying should be done after the squaring up, but before the cover is sawed off.

The method of ornamenting the edges by strips of different coloured woods may be omitted, and the work considerably simplified by gluing the top and bottom on, as shown in Fig. 181 at i, and if this seems too crude, a bevel ¹/₄ inch on the sides and ends and ¹/₂ inch on the top can be made with the plane. Still another method is to round the edges as shown at j.

Where the top is to be inlaid, either j or k is preferable, as ornamented corners combined with a decorated top is rather too much ornamentation for good taste.