When did they stop using Knapp joints?
1900
What makes the Knapp joint so special is that it was only used for about 30 years, from 1870 until 1900. This joint is the first known mechanization for making drawers in the industrial revolution age until eventually being replaced by a machine that cuts dovetails.
What are Knapp joints?
The Knapp Joint, also known as Pin & Cove, Pin & Scallop and Half Moon, is a visually unique style of antique joinery. It is a particularly interesting joint to us at Furnish Green because we don’t see it very often, and there’s a reason for that; it was only in use for about 30 years.
How do you date a dovetail joint furniture?
You can get an idea of the date of a piece of antique furniture by looking at the dovetail joint, as if it is hand cut you know its pre 1880 and the more primitive the cut usually means an earlier piece. Below you can see examples, the first is a 17th century drawer, pre dovetail so very primitive clout nails used.
Who made the first dovetail joint?
The dovetail joint technique probably pre-dates written history. Some of the earliest known examples of the dovetail joint are in ancient Egyptian furniture entombed with mummies dating from First Dynasty, the tombs of Chinese emperors, and a stone pillar at the Vazhappally Maha Siva Temple in India.
Is the Knapp joint rare?
This dovetail-like woodworking joint has many names – pin-and-cove, pin-and-crescent, pin-and-scallop, half-moon, or scallop-and-dowel joint, but is not a joint readily encountered in modern woodworking.
What is the strongest wood joint?
Mortise and Tenon Woodworking Joints One of the strongest woodworking joints is the mortise and tenon joint. This joint is simple and strong.
When did they stop making dovetail furniture?
Wider, uniform machine-cut dovetails were common in factory-made pieces from 1890 until the modern era. If a piece has no dovetails, it can still be a candidate for refinishing if it’s sturdy and well-designed, but it’s not likely to be an old piece with antique value.
When did they stop using dovetail in furniture?
Hand-cut dovetailing was the default until 1860 when uniform machine-cut joints were introduced. But fine cabinetmakers persisted in fitting their joints by hand until the early 1900s, and cabinetmakers in Europe cut dovetails by hand well into the 1930s.
What are the disadvantages of a dovetail joint?
The disadvantages of dovetail joints are that they can be fairly difficult to mark out and cut, and if they are made badly these joints lose the advantages listed above. Depending on the project, function, and design, there are a number of different types of dovetail joints to choose from.
When did dovetail drawers start?
American woodworkers played around with the ancient dovetailing concept and invented a version of their own in 1870.