I need a little help. I have been given an old drawer to repair that has cove and pin jointry. I Googled and found no help except an ASCII picture of the joint. _______________________________________ | (o | (o | (o | (o | (o | (o |_(o____________________________________
Does anyone have any information on a jig or tool to re-create this joint? I dread having to do it all by hand.
Thanks, Dave
TeamCasa asks:
Good luck. I know of no current machine that does this.
The link I had explaining the joint has expired, died, gone to old article heaven or whatever.
It is a Knapp joint, if it is what I think. Made by machine, it is also called a scallop and pin joint, a half moon and a scallop and dowel. Knapp patented the machine in 1867, sold the rights in 1870 and was out of use by 1900.
Charlie Self "Character is much easier kept than recovered." Thomas Paine
Popular in the USA around the 1880's - 1890's and made by the Wisconsin Dovetailing Machine.
I don't understand this joint. Just about everything is wrong with it, in terms of strength and grain layout. The coped edge adds negligible strength to the joint, so all load is taken on those pins.
You can make the loop side of the joint by drilling and a coping saw. Tedious handwork, but not too bad for a restoration job. It's unlikely (unless you find one of the old machines, or make a shaper cutter) that you'll tool up to make them in bulk.
The cope and pin side needs to be machine cut, but this isn't that hard - unless you're trying to match an existing piece. You need a plug cutter (fairly common) and a simple home-made jig to slide the workpiece across with a peg and row of holes to act as a stop. You can also do it with a Forstner bit and inserted dowel pegs. As broken pegs are a common repair, then this is also a useful way to fix them.
I've only made these once, just as an example. I was unimpressed with the results and I've never made them again.
-- Die Gotterspammerung - Junkmail of the Gods
Fine Woodworking had an article on how to do these - if I recall correctly, it was written by a female woodworker who graduated from the Bennet Street school ( that may help you find the article ). She used hand tools, and a pair of plug cutters to cut it. Working from memory, now, this is the procedure:
1) On the drawer front, use the plug cutter to cut the pins and scalloped edge. This is just normal use of a plug cutter, except you're going into end grain. 2) On the drawer side, she used a mated plug cutter that had been reground with flat tips to just outline where the scallops should be. Then use a gouge with matching sweep to cut them out. 3) A side effect of step 2 is a little raised circle of wood where the pin hole has to be drilled. Line up on that, and have at it with a drill press. 4) Tweak as necessary.Sounded kind of fun, but tedious. I'd hate to have to do a lot of them, but one or two might not be so bad.
Hope it helps, Henry Bibb
procedure:
The FWW article is Cove and Pin Joint: Making a bull=92s eye dovetail, by David Gray. Fine Woodworking 1986, No. 59, pages 74-75.=20
Woodworker's Supply has a router template/jig=20
The FWW article is Cove and Pin Joint: Making a bull's eye dovetail, by David Gray. Fine Woodworking 1986, No. 59, pages 74-75.
Woodworker's Supply has a router template/jig
Har! Guess my memory was wrong w.r.t. the author, eh? Thanks for the updated info. I hadn't found the issue yet...
Henry Bibb
Same article appears in Traditional Woodworking Techniques, The Best of Fine Woodworking.
Brian
Yes Woodworker's Supply does sell a system capable of making the joint. It is engineered well, up to the point when they give you what they call a manual for it.I think it was translated from teh Mandarin to the Cantonese to the Japanese to the Formosan to the Persian to the Romani then finally, they got someone who only speaks Basque to write it for them.
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