Hand-cut dovetails vs. router jig, which one actually pays off in a production shop?

I spent 12 years swearing by my Leigh jig for dovetails. Then I took a weekend class in Asheville with an old-timer who made me cut 20 joints by hand. I figured it was a waste of time for someone who bills by the hour. But after about 6 months of practicing on scrap, I started using hand-cut joints for smaller drawer boxes and custom pieces. The speed difference is real once you get the muscle memory, and I stopped dragging out the router and bits for one-off jobs. Am I crazy for thinking the hand method is legit for production work now, or is the jig still the smarter call for consistency when you have 40 drawers due by Friday?

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oliviabutler11d ago

...until you've got a stack of 40 identical drawers and a foreman breathing down your neck, and the finish guy is already waiting. The jig has a learning curve too, but once it's set, it's set. You zero out your error, not your skill. Hand cutting is great for the custom stuff, sure, but you're gambling 20 minutes of muscle memory against a template that never gets tired. When you're billing by the drawer, the router pays for itself in time saved on repeat runs. That's not a knock on the hand method, it's just math.

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