I thought dovetails had to be hand cut until I saw the drawers at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn

Simon Baker · 2026-09-25T23:10:04.958487+00:00

I always figured machine cut dovetails were cheating, like if it was not chiseled by hand then it did not count as real joinery. Last month my wife dragged me to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan and I ended up spending a solid hour in the furniture section instead of looking at the cars. There was a chest of drawers from the 1840s, factory made, and the dovetails were tight and even, way nicer than a lot of the hand cut stuff I see in modern shops. I stood there running my eyes along the pins and tails and realized the guy who built that piece probably never touched a chisel to those joints either. What made it good was not the method, it was that the pins and tails fit right and the wood was prepped flat. Since then I quit feeling bad about using a jig on the runs and I save my hand work for the pieces where it actually shows. I still love cutting them by hand on a one off, it just is not the thing that makes a drawer last. Does anyone here actually see a difference in hold up between the two once the glue sets, or are we all just holding onto the romance of it?

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I thought dovetails had to be hand cut until I saw the drawers at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn | Cabinetmakers - The Community Guide