Fastening in a joiner's Swallow's tail
The swallow's tail or the Hoffman's swallow is a wooden key for fastening of details from a tree. Hoffmann developed and patented this idea more than 10 years ago, and since then it has been actively used in the creation of furniture and other wooden structures. Thomas Hoffman himself first invented this fastening system when he was a student at Harvard University. Yes, without a doubt, it was a revolution in carpentry, but was it really the latest discovery? In fact, fasteners of a similar type have been used since ancient times and not only in woodworking. Even during excavations in Egypt, stone products were found, which used a plug-in spike, similar in design to a dovetail. However, the term was actively used in 1985, when Thomas "invented" fasteners made of polymers with jagged edges. Soon the dovetail key was adopted throughout the woodworking craft.
What is this swallow's tail? It follows from the name that this design resembles the shape of a swallow's tail. It is made of synthetic polymer - a plastic and durable material. In general, it looks like wood. This mount works best at an angle of 45 degrees, at which wood products do not have open ends. This helps to increase the product's resistance to moisture, thereby increasing the overall service life. The main advantage of these fasteners is its unique properties. First of all, it is a carefully thought-out form of fastening. If you cut the part crosswise, we get a double wedge. These wedges have precise angular parameters by which the swallow tightly tightens the two parts. The dimensions and length of the Hoffman swallow are also considered depending on the size of the cross section of the parts and the loads acting in the connection. Also, the side surface of the product is made of ribs, so that the wooden key is firmly fixed in the groove. The second important detail is the material, the dovetail mounting Drevych is made of a different kind of wood than the rest of the table body, it added extra emphasis to this detail, and stabilizes the wood naturally from cracking and changing geometry. It is resistant to physical damage and temperature. Use not only the standard shape of the tail, now variations of this attachment are limited only by the imagination of the master. However, the placement of the fibers must always be taken into account in order for the design to be functional.
The process of creating and combining the dovetail with the product is as follows: trimming parts, milling grooves, joining the structure and pressing the fasteners. It does not require a lot of equipment - only 2-3 cars will be enough. This saves both space and electricity. Areas of use of this fastening do not come to an end only on finished products from a tree. In general, there are different types of Hoffman swallow designs that are used for specific purposes. There is a type which is used for creation of frameworks, eaves, boxes, lattice products. Also suitable for furniture, wooden floors, interior decoration, for the decoration of the door frame or platband. This is the type Drevich uses to create tables with the Hoffman swallow. Swallowtail is also used in transparent structures such as greenhouses, conservatories, arches or railings. And type other type is applied at construction, in roofs and beam designs.
The swallow's tail is not just a reliable attachment, it is also a decorative element that will distinguish any product from wood. Now often cracks are specially created to decorate them with Hoffman's swallow. It happens that the swallow's tail is simply inserted into a solid wooden surface. You can order a table with a Hoffman swallow mount on the Drevich website, or simply leave a request below for an individual calculation of the cost of a table with this type of mount.
