Really sorting out tenons.

[Andy Kev.]

My sawing is usually mildly ropey and occasionally plain embarrassing.

I've just sawn a load of smallish tenons and then got the big faces flat with the router plane as usual. Then I pared the by eye with a chisel. The results looked not too bad but I decided to do a quality check via the router plane. They weren't massively off but enough to reduce the gluing surface and/or demand more glue to hold them in place.

So I've decided that until I reach the day when I can reliably saw bang on, all faces of my tenons are going to get the router plane treatment. Yes, it takes a tiny bit longer but there is the assurance that they are all as bang on as you can reasonably get them.

 

[Dr.Al]

That's the way I do too (since watching Matt Estlea and David Charlesworth both doing it that way).

Not that I'm an expert by any means & my sawing skills leave a lot to be desired!

 

[Argus]

Me too......

I always cut tenons by hand, oversize though I sometimes refine the sides with a large float.
Not a tool for everyone, but as a final cut, after the router and chisels, it is capable of leaving mating faces - both mortises and tenons - dead flat.

About 10 years ago a friend wanted a, "Edwardian-Style" Hall Stand. Couldn't find one, so I made one from some photos.

It was a frame-and-panel construction and all up it had over 36 M&T joints that needed to be flush on both stile and rail.
Here it is in its pre-delivery glamour shot.





Because some of the rail sections were short and awkward to sit a conventional router on, I made a router-style plane with a 9/16" plough blade which was locked at the right setting for the duration of the job and gave me the exact shoulder depth from the face-edge. This could give me a length-ways cut in line with the face side of the piece. This way everything lined up on repeated adjacent joints.



Here is the adapted router that I made and used. The float is in front on the bench.

I'll confess that the mortises were cut with a plunge machine, though all the internal sides were finished and leveled with the float.
The tenons were cut with a saw .


I've not done that many tenons since........

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