30oct2025
I am sick of the endless sea of exposed dovetails in hand woodwork. There. I said it. It’s probably woodworking heresy, but I think excessive use of exposed dovetails indicates a lack of taste.
I used to be intensely interested in close-up magic: stuff with cards, coins, bills, string, and other small props. The pure sleight of hand close-up magic that eschewed props as much as possible was my chosen time sink.
It’s very easy to get wrapped up, in the two main branches of close-up magic – card and coin magic – with endless variations of just a handful of techniques that magicians tend to obsess over. And in this obsession, magicians often lose sight of what they set out to do: To charm an audience with mystery and surprise. This is the dovetail disease of the magician.
If nothing else, it seems beyond argument that exposed dovetails are just a “look at me” plea, and not a subtle one. That they are as common as fleas among both handtool and machine woodworkers is beyond doubt, and to me, their over-representation in the field of joinery has all the class of a gaudily-framed Dogs Playing Poker velvet wall hanging. I do like me a Dogs Playing Poker image. Always have. Wouldn’t want to wallpaper my dwelling in them. As an indicator of artistic taste they have all the impact of, well… exposed dovetail joints. Sadly, the malady is highly-infectious and likely to persist.
Yeah, I know all the arguments for superiority of dovetail joints. They’re mostly bull. But they’re fun to do, and I won’t hold my breath waiting for a sudden outbreak of good taste.
Maybe I should have called this site Grumpy Old Geezer instead of Almost Lucid Geezer. Or maybe the two phrases are equivalent?
End of rant.