Hand cut dovetails

[masterKG]

I've been practicing hand cut joinery for about 6 months now and my through dovetails looked quite okay, but these half blind ones for the box is giving me a bit of trouble and I'm still getting small gaps, especially at the corners where the baseline meets the sides. When I try to fix it by paring more, I just make it worse and get slop. I know it's probably a skill thing and just takes practice, but man, looking at my attempts is depressing lol. Should I just accept gaps and fill with sawdust and glue mix? or keep practicing on scrap until I can do it gap free?I dont wanna build bad habits if I rely on filler too much.
Any encouragement from the woodpeckers who struggled through this learning phase would be appreciated!

 

[soft.mike31]

Halfblinds are legitimately harder than through dovetails, you're cutting blind and have less room for error. Remember that small gaps can and will most likely happen,
I remeber I used to cut sets on scrap before I did actual stuff, man it was boring, but it worked

 

[d@rkr00m]

bro, we all hit that wall with half blinds. That gap right where the baseline meets the side is the most common flaw, and it's not always a skill thing, it's often a chisel geometry thing.

When you're paring out the waste, make sure you are not undercutting the baseline. Also, use the very corner tip of a very sharp chisel (1/8 inch wide) to clean up those corners. Don't use the wide chisel, it can’t physically reach the last few fibers in that tight space. Keep practicing, and skip the filler, it teaches you nothing

 

[Alan]

@masterKG yep, half blinds are tricky. Focus on using a sharp, narrow chisel for the corners and don’t undercut the baseline. Scrap practice is worth it. Skip the filler, it won’t teach you anything.

How many practice boards have you gone through so far?