r/BeginnerWoodWorking • u/CtrayX • 6d ago

Discussion/Question ⁉️ Pine board composition.

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Learning to hand cut dovetails. Been a long week. Why are the insides of some of these big box pine boards like this? Some are solid and compact like the bottom board with the tails. Some are loose and falling apart like the top board with the pins. Why is this happening? Is it the board or me?

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u/dr_stre 6d ago

Get yourself some poplar to practice with. Much firmer than pine (especially the farmed pine we largely have available in big box stores today) but not as hard as true hardwoods so still easy to cut, and still generally cheap and easy to find at a big box store. Soft woods like pine suck for learning dovetails.

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u/Fastco 6d ago

I disagree because pine is really instructive, it really shows deficits in your sharpening and technique. I see how it can be frustrating but if you have a mind torwards improvement I think its great. That said it definitely depends on your goals I guess, I like building out of a wide range of woods and things like western red cedar and hinoki is more difficult than box store pine IMO

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u/dr_stre 6d ago

You don’t teach someone to golf by putting them on the first tee and telling them to swing. For first timers I think the proper course of action is to not make things more difficult than they need to be. Poplar is a nice middle ground that’s not nearly as hard as some other woods but also not punishingly soft and crushable like pine.

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u/Fastco 6d ago

I guess we just disagree. I think you can make the fastest progress in more "difficult" woods like pine because you can learn soooo much so fast and it isn't really that difficult. Assuming this is OP's fiirst dovetails he did a great job and has some ideas on what/how to improve. People do have different preferences when learning a skill, but I always prefer to learn things by doing them in a way that will teach me the fastest and is the most instructive. I also enjoy working in a wide variety of woods that are considered difficult so really value the insight I learned early on. Your mileage and goals may differ

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u/CtrayX 6d ago

We can all agree that I learned a ton doing this by hand and am excited to progress.