Pin or Tail? Identifying Dovetails
Call me slow but it took a long time for me to figure out the difference between a “pin” and a “tail” when looking at half blind dovetails. When I look at the outside corner of a drawer, the pins and tails look identical in shape, so which is which? After years of study, I now understand the difference and I want to share my knowledge with my website visitors. I use a Porter-Cable 4216 Dovetail Jig and the drawer fronts and backs (pin boards) are always positioned in the top clamp horizontally. The drawer sides (tail boards) are always positioned in the side clamp vertically which means that the tails are cut completely through the board (duh!). Other ways to identify the pins from the tails are shown below.
