Shaker Tray with a Little Embellishment

Requiring sawing, planning, and shaping skills, this tray is the perfect project to put hand-tool lessons to practice.

- Kenan Orhan

This tray is a slightly amended version of a shaker cutlery tray and is a great one-day project to help you hone your hand-tool skills while still producing a beautiful and utilitarian piece. I start by breaking down rough cherry lumber and mill pieces to thickness and length. Though the divider that makes up the handle will be slightly shorter than the long walls of the tray, I cut it the same length and will adjust it later. With planning and care, you can create an effect with the grain that wraps around from one face to the next, but since this is dovetail construction instead of miters, I don’t bother too much with that, preferring just to lay out the faces so the grain is pleasing to the eye.

Gang-Cut Tails

I start my dovetails by gang-cutting the tails. This method speeds up the process considerably. The trick with gang-cutting, however, is really paying attention to the baseline so that you don’t extend your kerf beyond it. Having a dead-level cutting action will help, but even I struggle with this sometimes, so as I near the line, I check the opposite face as well, sort of teetering between them. Then when the kerf touches the baseline on both faces, I use a very light touch and a few passes to make sure the kerf goes straight across rather than leaving a bump of unsawn waste in the middle.

While cutting your tails, something to consider if you find that your line drifts, is to position your boards so that the line you follow with your saw is perpendicular to the floor. This really lets gravity assist with that straight line, and considering the secret to good dovetails is straight lines, that's an assist that's hard to pass up.