Dating Furniture by machine cut dovetails

[brian roth]

I have a nice walnut dresser with obviously machine cut half blind dovetails in the drawers, both front and back. Any rules of thumb on how old it might be? When did dovetail jigs first appear?

[bridger]

a couple of days after routers did?

but I think there were dedicated dovetailing machines around before that.

[Charlie Self]

bridger responds:

I know that a kind of machine cut joint, the pin and scallop, was cut by machine back around 1895. That looks as if it is more complex to cut than dovetails, so I'd guess there were dovetail jigs back then. It would be interesting to find out.

Are there any true woodworking historians--let's reverse that to 'historians of woodworking techniques'--in the world?

Charlie Self "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine

[Greg Millen]

Charlie,

I read somewhere that archaeologists use jointing techniques to help date items. As to true historians, we have one here in Oz who writes articles occasionally, there're probably others.

[Charlie Self]

Greg Millen responds:

Any of his stuff on-line? Jointing techniques in woodworking would be a lot like nail types in houses, I'd guess. Or, for that matter, joinery in houses. Not many M&T frames put up these days, yet I've seen it used in old barns made of white oak. Built in the 1830s (houses went up last and the house on this property was dated 1839), so all hand tools. Makes me ache to think of all the work, but the last I saw the place ('82) it was still standing through heaven knows how many roofs and at least two siding jobs (white pine).

Charlie Self "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine