dovetails, for next time

I cut the tails first and the pins second, unlike (apparently) everyone else, because I think it's a lot easier to mark the tails on the pin ends than the other way around.

1. Mark the thickness of each board on the other so I know how deep to cut the tails and pins.
a. The end of the board might not be square: don't trust the saw. They lie. Mark a perpendicular using a good square on the edge of the board, using the thickness of the other board as a gauge.
b. And add a little -- way less than a millimeter but more than the thickness of paper. Scribe. (This is so tails and pins stick out a little on the finished joint, because it's easier to remove wood than to add it.)

2. Mark the dovetails. They can be very skinny.

3. Cut the dovetails with a very low-kerf backsaw.

4. Slit several times into the dovetail waste so it comes out more easily.

5. Cut out the waste with a jeweler's saw because it's way faster and less irritating than using a chisel. Clean up the cross-grain wit a chisel, though. Rocking, slicing moves do better than straight hammer moves. Make sure the chisel has adequate side relief so you can get it down in the dovetail bottoms.

6. Put the dovetail board down on a flat surface, butt the pin board against it, butt them both against a true edge on what will be the bottom of the drawer. Mark the pins.

7. Cut the pins a sawblade-width wide of the mark.

8. True up the pins to fit the dovetails.

9. Remember when you dado for the bottom of the drawer, don't run it all the way through the siderails because then you'll have a tiny square hole in the front of the drawer, one on each side.