Fine Woodworking 2007 Building Furniture

Photos: Kelly J. Dunton

T

he dovetailed drawer has long been

the hallmark of quality, hand-crafted

furniture. And for good reason: A

dovetailed drawer is both beautiful to look

at and strong enough to last 200 years. But

dovetailing a drawer is not the daunting

task you might think—all it requires is a

little know-how and practice. No matter

what size drawer you’re building or what

piece of furniture it’s going into, the tech-

niques are the same. If you can build a

drawer for a simple Shaker table, you can

build a dozen of them for an 18th-century

highboy.

The key to building a drawer is learn-

ing to cut dovetails. A traditional dove-

tailed drawer combines both half-blind

and through-dovetails. Because you want

to see dovetails only on the drawer sides,

use half-blind dovetails at the front of the

drawer. Through-dovetails are used to con-

nect the back to the sides. In this article,

The Dovetailed Drawer

Learn to

build traditional

drawers that

stand the test

of time

B y J a n e t a.

C o l l i n s

Groove

Drawer

Half-blind side

dovetails

Through-dovetails

Drawer front

Drawer back Screw slot

Beveled

drawer

bottom

BuiLDinGdrawers]

82 F I N E w o oDw o rK I Ng

FWSIP08BF_DD.indd 82 6/6/07 4:27:31 PM