Simpler Repairs

Sometimes bits split and it's nothing you did. Do you bin all the work to start over or do you repair? On this project, I would have had a major loss in work and wood. I decided on a patch.It's not always something we did and wood always has some unanticipated idiosyncrasies that cannot be mitigated for. Beech, maple, elm . . .easy-peasy! Mahogany is good 90% of the time, but then there are some fibrous aspects to it, short grain, reverse and spiral grains that, well, they just split off if you even look too long at them.The weakest points on dovetails are, well, the points of the shallow angles. On this dovetail, the splits went in a highly obvious place.I cut a similar corresponding shape from a scrap of the same wood. Only the angle needs to match, nearly but not necessarily exactly.And just a sawn surface will suffice, too.PVA glue will work well, press firmly with the finger and hold for a few minutes before letting go. Leave it to fully dry, overnight is best.Saw off the excess…