Marblewood.

[Birdhunter]

I planning to make a small box 4” cube using Marblewood. I’ve used Marblewood in several projects a I like working with it. The difference this time I’m planning hand cut dovetails. I am concerned the wood will be way too hard for my beginners skills.

 

[Cheese]

I planning to make a small box 4” cube using Marblewood. I’ve used Marblewood in several projects a I like working with it. The difference this time I’m planning hand cut dovetails. I am concerned the wood will be way too hard for my beginners skills.

Just a question...can you take a good fret saw and remove 90% of the material and then just use a sharp chisel for clean up?

 

[SASPred]

Hand cutting dovetails into marblewood is not recommended due to how dense it is. Your dovetail saw would become dull quite quickly and would take you far to long to cut out.

You would be better off using chisels or even a dovetail bit in a router.

 

[HarveyWildes]

In my experience with turning Marblewood, it also seems to be brittle and split easily.  I'd make sure that your dovetails fit easily when cut, and not try to force fit anything (not that I would ever try that ).

 

[Birdhunter]

I have cut the tails only on one board of the box. That’s enough!

The Bad Axe saw did ok and I was able to remove the bulk of the waste with a Knew Concepts fret saw easily. But, doing the final trim with my Lie Nielsen chisels took forever.

I’m a rank beginner with hand cut dovetails and trying to do them with Marblewood is probably a bad idea.

I’ll pick another wood type.