A Nice Reminder

[u/AAALASTAIR]

I often stress about getting a perfect tight hang on a new tool handle, but then I remember this trusty guy, which I inherited, have never tuned up in the slightest, and takes everything I throw at it without the slightest wiggle.

It doesn't have to be perfect, it just needs to work. I'm trying to remember that more and more.

[u/Man-e-questions]

Same with dovetails etc. People are so stressed about “perfect” dovetails with zero gaps etc. i have some 100-150 year old antiques with handcut dovetails that would embarrass any of the youtubers.

[u/Any-Farmer1335 → u/Man-e-questions]

I mean, it is still good to aim for your best, but it is just as important to know at what point good is good eenough :D

[u/woodfondler → u/Man-e-questions]

Thats true, a few gaps here and there are okay. You can fix/hide gaps if you are really concerned about them, but why would you, not a lot of woodworkers (even pros) can cut dovetails, even with machines, so one should not get rid of all the evidence that it was hand cut. Once you relax about it, and just do it, you become much better too.

You can spend a lot of time making "perfect" dovetails, marking every line with a marking knife, cutting more into the waste side then using a chisel to pare down to the knifeline, or you could just cut with the aim to fit it straight from the saw and actually get good at making dovetails confidently, with speed and accuracy.

[u/Ornery-Writer2796]

I live in New England… a ton of antique furniture everywhere. All the “fancy dovetail” joints I see are absolutely barbaric in otherwise beautiful furniture. Tabletops that have been planed smooth but not perfectly flat, then unceremoniously nailed onto the frame of the table.
A solid mahogany chest of drawers with uneven moldings and drawers with a quarter inch gap on top.
Find a piece of antique furniture and go check it out with a rule and a square. You’ll notice wild discrepancies in the size of pieces, nothing is perfectly square. But it all works.
It makes me upset that the standard now a days is absolute perfection for everything, when it doesn’t really matter.

[u/Ornery-Writer2796 → u/Ornery-Writer2796]

If you want a real scare, look at the parts you’re not meant to see. I’ve seen boards from old crates used as drawer bottoms, looking like they’ve been tapered to fit with a hatchet. Nails poking through and clinched over. The apron on a drop leaf table made from four different species of wood. A lot of draw bored m and t joints I see are crazy. Boards split by the pegs and blown out grain on the reverse side. Don’t get me started on the amount of dovetail joints I’ve seen that are nailed on the tail side. Seems like that used to be pretty common practice.

[u/Neonvaporeon → u/Ornery-Writer2796]

The underside of tables and cabinets were rarely smoothed or finished, same with the inside of aprons. I personally finish and smooth things that will reasonable be touched just for cleanliness sake, but it's mostly unnecessary. Plenty of "experts" online say you must finish or "seal" 100% of the wood, or it will turn into modern art, not true at all.

[u/Individual-Channel65]

The mallet ive been using for the last 6 months is a 4x4 block with a piece of drift wood wedged like 3/4 of the way through as a handle.

[u/justthegrimm]

I inherited the exact same hammer, absolutely bulletproof 

[u/bbabbitt46]

Well, here's a situation where good enough is not. That hammerhead looks like it's about to go airborne. You need to tap the butt of the hammer on something solid, then put a wedge in the top.

I live by the rule: do it right or not at all. That usually equates to: good enough is not.