Just cut my 1000th dovetail by hand and the number surprised me

I keep a tally on my shop wall and finally hit it yesterday. It made me realize how much muscle memory I've built up since my first shaky ones three years ago. Anyone have a good trick for keeping your marking knife sharp through a big batch?

3 comments

3 Comments

abbyk103mo agoMost Upvoted

That's a serious number of dovetails. For the marking knife, I keep a fine ceramic honing rod right on the bench. A few quick passes on it every ten or fifteen joints takes five seconds and keeps the edge biting clean. Lets you finish the whole batch without stopping for a full sharpening session.

victor_hall3mo ago

What brand of honing rod works best?

lane.drew2mo ago

Tried that and it saved me a ton of time.