jonfloryschrock asked: What was Krenov's method for doing dovetails and the unique spacing (not that you need to spell it all out for me here), and how would you suggest I go about learning about that carpentry short of finding someone to apprentice under which is getting rarer and rarer, especially since I live in the States?
The way he cut them was just like everybody else pretty much, the only thing that might be different from some is he did tails first instead of pins first (which I like). The process of laying out the tails would take a long time to describe, and if you’ve never cut a dovetail joint before it’d be even longer, and probably really confusing. The reason he cut them the way he did though was aesthetic, and because he wanted you to know it was done by hand, with care & attention to detail; not by a machine.
As far as the second question, there are a lot of incredible craftsman in America, you just kind of have to dig around and find them. That’s always the best way to learn. Other than that, I would recommend reading what you can by George Nakashima, James Krenov, and Sam Maloof to get a good idea of the craft. Then as far as actual technique goes, Charles Hayward, Alan Peters, Rob Cosman and Chris Schwarz have a ton of great information out there. Magazines like Fine Woodworking and the like have a lot of really good information too. I would recommend watching Cosman’s dvds on dovetailing, he learned from Alan Peters and I like his method a lot. After reading stuff by those guys you’ll see where you want to go with woodworking (whether you like their ideas or not), so just follow your own path and you’ll be fine.
Hope that helped,
-Luke
