# How To Edge Joint



## custard

Edge jointing means joining up narrower pieces of wood to make a wider board. It's something you have to do with nearly all furniture projects, because most boards sold today are less than 300mm wide, and the majority are in the range 150-200mm wide. So if you want a table top, or a chair seat, or a panel for frame and panel work, then you'll have to learn to edge joint.

When it goes as planned it looks like this. You start with a board that has at least one true face, and you then cut an edge that's at _exactly_ 90 degrees to the reference face all along its length,






You also need this edge to be dead straight, or possibly with a _minute_ hollow in the centre, but on no account must it have any trace of a "bump" when tested with either a wooden or metal straight edge,





When you've repeated that process on a second board they should sit together _perfectly_,





Which means when they're cramped for the glue up there's an invisible glue line and you can rest a straight edge across them, and the resulting table top (or panel, or whatever) is perfectly flat with no visible gap,









So, how do you set about doing this?

There are plenty of different approaches, but I'll take you through the approach I use, which I know is shared by many other cabinet makers.

I guess the first thing to say is that the very best glue lines will come from a sharp bench plane. With the right machinery you can produce a good edge straight from a machine,





But if you look carefully at a planed or sawn edge you'll still find traces of machine marks, these for example are the tell-tale ripples from a planer,





And that's from a good planer, where the knives are always kept sharp. But most hobbyists aren't in that position, they may have a planer with a fence that has a slight twist along it's length, or the knives are bit blunt, or it's prone to snipe. Or they may not have a planer at all, and be relying on a lunch box/bench top type thicknesser, or even just hand tools.

That shouldn't be a problem. For many years I had a small workshop that could only accommodate a bench top thicknesser and a band saw, yet I managed to produce plenty of edge jointed components to the highest standards. And with a bit of application so can you.

I've reached the photo limit for a single post, so I'll continue in the next post.


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## custard

Edge jointing will really test your hand planing skills. So even if you've got your plane in reasonable shape and are fairly content with your planing skills, you'll probably need to keep an open mind that you may have to take those skills up a level.

For example I know many new woodworkers (and even some not so new ones!) struggle when starting the cut. They'll tend to let the plane droop down at the back which produces a bit of a divot at the beginning of the cut like this,





If you see this happening then try sharpening the iron and setting a lighter cut. But most of all, get into the habit of pressing down firmly with your thumb, directly centred over the board's edge, with your fingers curled around underneath to act as a fence,





If there's even a trace of unevenness at the start of your planing cuts you'll really struggle with edge jointing, the quality of the cut needs to be immaculate from the very start to the very end. Within reason you can edge joint with almost any plane from an 04 to an 08. But the extreme shortness of an 04 plane's sole ahead of the iron means it's harder for a beginner to master edge jointing with an 04. This photograph of an 04 and an 05 illustrates the point,





You'll find it easier to edge joint with a slightly longer plane, which is why schools always used to teach woodworking with a number 05. At the other end of the scale an 07 or an 08 are pretty unwieldy, the 08 especially. You might think these ultra long planes will guarantee quality results, but if their weight and size compromises your planing techniques then they are counter productive. In these photos I'm using a Lie Nielsen 07, but it could just as easily be a Record 05 1/2 or a Stanley 06, they'll all deliver exactly the same results. 

The next challenge is to get the right camber on your iron. This is particularly tricky as you'll only get there after quite a lot of trial and error, unfortunately there's no magic formula that will automatically produce the optimum camber for edge jointing. I have heard some people say a 37" or 38" radius camber works for them, which on a 2 3/8" wide iron would mean around a two thou gap at each side of the iron compared with the centre. Personally I prefer a very slightly more aggressive camber than this, and in any event I've never tried to achieve it "by the numbers". I simply apply more pressure to the edges while honing, until I'm happy with the results. After that I try and maintain that camber by honing with a consistent number of strokes while applying pressure to five points along the iron's edge, so perhaps ten strokes while applying pressure on the far left, ten strokes while applying pressure to the centre left, ten strokes while applying pressure to the centre, and so on.

The best account that I've read of cambering an iron, and the role it plays in edge jointing, is in volume two of David Charlesworth's "Furniture Making Techniques". 

One test I apply is that with my plane set for a very fine cut I'll be able to run down a typical 20-25mm wide board and the shaving won't quite span the entire edge, but it will feather out imperceptibly on both sides, like this,





I'll then reset the plane for a slightly coarser cut. But taking great care that the apex of the camber is right in the middle of the plane's sole. If you can't reliably do this by eye the try using a sliver of scrap wood to stroke down the sole of the plane, checking how far in from both edges you are before you start taking cut. 

You can tell from this how a plane's camber is both critical and also a personal preference. You'll often tend to adjust that camber at every honing, so it's worth spending a fair bit of time experimenting to find out what works for you.


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## custard

You'll recall that successful edge jointing means achieving two tasks. Ensuring the edge is at 90 degrees to the reference face, and also that the edge itself is straight or perhaps very very slightly hollowed. The purpose of the camber on the iron is to help us achieve the first objective, ensuring the edge is at 90 degrees.

To illustrate how this works look at the following example. Here we're testing the edge with a square, with the stock resting on the edge we can see a gap next to the reference face. Importantly this gap is at the _top_ of the blade.





This means the far side of the edge is higher than the front. One way of being sure of this is to imagine an even bigger gap at the top, to produce a bigger gap you'd tilt the square towards the front, therefore lifting the back of the stock up and off the far edge. So the challenge is to plane away more of the back edge than the front edge. We'll remind ourselves of what needs to be done by applying a pencil mark on the high side, like this,





In practise you'd repeat this check at about 6" intervals all along the top edge, leaving pencil marks accordingly.

Now if we shift the plane over towards the right hand side the camber means we'll cut deeper on the right and shallower on the left. Remember we'll be using our fingers curled underneath the plane as a fence to ensure we're consistent throughout the cut,





And you can see the proof of this with this shaving. It shows the pencil mark that's been removed, but the cut fades out to nothing on the left,





In reality I wouldn't move the plane quite this far too the right, I prefer to take a shaving that runs right across the edge. I do this to avoid the risk of the edge becoming _faceted_, but I show this exaggerated cut to demonstrate just how effective the technique is. 

We'd check again with the square, marking the high side and repeating as necessary, until finally the edge is dead square to the reference face all along its length. Here you can see there's no gap whatsoever, at the top or at the bottom,





Sometimes you'll be faced with a top edge that's in wind, ie it's slightly twisted so it might start with the left side high, but finish with the right side high. In that case you'd have pencil marks on the left at the beginning, but on the right towards the end. Faced with this (and it is quite common) you have to move the plane across while you're making the cut. So you'd start with the plane over towards the left, but finish with the plane over towards the right. All I can suggest is you keep practising these strokes until you're confident you can execute it smoothly and accurately.


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## screwpainting

Thank you Custard, after an horrendous day, your thread has me restored.
=D>


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## LancsRick

I had no idea about the camber for edge jointing, and had always assumed it was preference of grind for scrub planes. How wrong was I...

Thabk you again Custard, hugely informative.


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## custard

The second challenge in edge jointing, after getting the edge at 90 degrees to the reference face by using the camber, is to ensure the top edge is dead straight or possibly slightly hollow, but under no circumstances must there be a high spot.

The problem is that planes don't always plane a dead flat surface. In particular hand pressure alone can flex the sole by a few thou, which means it may conform to a pre-existing curve in the top edge. With practise you'll get better at planing flat, but one way to guarantee the minute hollow that delivers a _sprung joint_ is to use "stopped shavings".

This is a technique where you start the cut about half an inch in, and finish the cut the same distance before the far end. It sometimes helps to mark the top edge like this, and thereafter aim to retain those marks at both the start and finish,





I should emphasise that the way to stop the shaving at the far end is to lift either the front or back end of the plane by a fraction of an inch, just before you judge that the cutting edge of the iron is about to remove your mark. Don't just stop and lift the plane away or you'll find a long shaving is still attached to the workpiece! Getting this right, stroke after stroke, takes some practise, but don't get despondent if you find you miss and plane away the end mark, just pencil it back in and within a few strokes you'll be back to where you should be.

Imagine it as deliberately planing a hollow into the edge. If you repeat this for eight or ten strokes you'll find the plane simply stops cutting. The edge has become so hollow that the length of the sole prevents the iron making contact, first in the absolute centre then progressively outwards from that point.

Once you've arrived at this position you take _through_ shavings (as opposed to _stopped_ shavings) until you get your first full length shaving. I normally find that one, or possibly two further shavings gets me to the exact degree of hollowness I want. If you prefer a dead straight edge then stop at the first complete, full length through shaving.

You test with a straight edge, either metal or wood as you prefer, 





Personally I rarely check for light under the straight edge. Instead I pivot the straight edge about the centre and feel and listen for feedback.





If it pivots easily, and silently, then there's a high spot in the middle. Heavy resistance or a complete refusal to pivot says the opposite, it's too hollow. But a modest resistance with a small scratching sound means it's right where it needs to be.

As you can tell from this account, a lot of this is about feel and judgement, things that only arrive with practise. Furthermore, there's the frustrating possibility that during the stop shavings you'll loose the precise 90 degree angle, so then you have to start again. 

In reality I'll tend to combine elements of the two stages together, and ideally when I've finished getting the 90 degree angle I'm actually already at the degree of hollowness I want, or very very close to it.

You do this for each edge of the two boards then bring them together and check the final result. Repeat the same pivoting test you did with the straight edge, and check that the two faces are in a perfect 180 degree line, if they tend to tip forwards or backwards you've more work to do.





When you first try this I can pretty much guarantee you'll be tearing your hair out. But believe me, it does get progressively easier and a lot lot faster! 

However, if you feel it's all to difficult I'll follow up with some posts giving some alternative and easier options for edge jointing.


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## custard

If you don't have a decent planing machine you can still machine a reasonably accurate edge using just a router. 

One way is to do the job directly on a router table. The difficulty here is you need a split fence, with the outfeed fence being exactly in line with the cutter, and the infeed fence being set back according to whatever depth of cut you want. Setting the outfeed fence precisely is certainly possible, but in practise it isn't as simple as it sounds. And unless it's _absolutely_ accurate, you'll get some snipe to your machine edge, meaning you'll then have to cross-cut off a few inches from each end.

A slower, but surer outcome, can be achieved using the router hand held.

You'll firstly need a bearing guided straight router bit, like one of these,





These are top and bottom bearing cutters, the top one has a skew cut which is cleaner but they're more expensive. The bottom one has disposable blades, so there's no excuse for not having a sharp bit!

You'll run the bearing against the "factory edge" of some MDF. The factory edge is the name given to an edge that was cut by the manufacturer, you can identify it because it often will have words or a code stencilled on it. You can be confident that it will be absolutely straight, so straight in fact that you can even use a factory edge as an inexpensive straight edge. The only thing to watch out for is it mustn't have been bumped or dented.

You need a piece that's at least eight or twelve inches longer than your workpiece. It's critical when copy routing (which is basically what this technique is) to have a "lead in" and a "lead out" for your router, in other words the MDF template must overhang the workpiece at each end. When you've got your ideal bit of MDF place the workpiece on your bench with the edge over hanging by half an inch or so. Then place your MDF template on top, but _set back_ from the workpiece's edge by a whisker, say about 1/32" or 1mm. It should look like this,





The problem you'll probably have (assuming you don't have fancy kit like vacuum clamps) is work holding. So here's a method that works and doesn't require specialist equipment.

You're going to copy route the edge in stages. Start with the cramps off-set to the right, so you can cut the first stage,





You'll only probably cut about 8-12" before you get blocked by a cramp. So stop and switch of the router.

Now here's the critical bit. _Before_ removing any cramps you must first _add_ one cramp at the far left, like this,





Only now can you remove the cramp that's blocking your way, like this,





Then you pick up the copy routing from where you left off,





You progress along the edge in stages, always remembering to add a cramp before removing one.

If your workpiece is very wide, and if you have a bench configured so that you can cramp from the back, then you might be able to avoid this stage by stage approach. But for most jobs this is how you'll have to do it. It might be slow, but you'll get decent results, almost certainly better than you'd get from a circular saw for example. However, it's still a machined edge, so it won't be quite as good as an impeccably executed edge joint with a bench plane. But if you really can't spare the time to learn how to edge joint by hand, then this is an acceptable option that's well worth considering.

A couple of final points regarding router cut edge jointing. Firstly, don't use Solo Cramps, which are this style of cramp,
https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-t ... p-ax364432

Solo Cramps are a good cramp, cheap and with plenty of workshop applications, but they have a tendency to let go under vibration. So for securing templates use F Cramps or good quality Speed Cramps. 

Secondly, you can use the MDF factory edge approach with a router table, the quickest way is to use double sided tape to stick the MDF template to your workpiece. With the same style of bearing copy bit in the router, you can then run it straight through on your router table without needing a split fence or any off-sets. The only thing to be aware of is that many commercial workshops are now frowning on the use of double sided tape to attach templates on safety grounds...but it's your call. Your workshop, your rules!


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## custard

Another alternative for edge jointing is to _shoot_ the edge.

You're probably more used to shooting boards than run _across_ the bench, like this,





Obviously this arrangement makes it impossible to shoot any workpiece longer than the width of your bench. Which is why I tend to prefer shooting boards that run _along_ the bench, like this,





It's far easier to make a much longer shooting board in this fashion, which may well allow you to edge joint on it. For example, this is how I edge joint drawer bottoms, which are 8mm thick boards of Cedar of Lebanon, a bit too thin to edge joint any other way.

Building on this general principle it's possible to put together a very simple shooting board type arrangement that removes a lot of the skill from edge jointing, but still delivers the impeccable results only achievable with a bench plane.

Start by laying a long length of Birch ply or MDF on your bench like this,





Then cramp your workpiece on top of it like this,





As long as your bench is reasonably flat you can then progress through the edge jointing stages previously discussed like this,





For example here's one way to test for straight by supporting a straight edge on small blocks,





If your bench allows cramping from the rear you can reverse the entire arrangement like this, which is more convenient





And if your bench isn't that flat then you can place a length of MDF underneath everything for the plane to run on. I can guarantee this method works very well, it's basically how I edge joint saw cut veneers or other very thin but long components, but it works just as well with thicker workpieces. Going this route you don't need a cambered iron, as you can adjust for square using the lateral adjustment on the plane. However, personally I still prefer a cambered iron, I just take great care that the apex of the camber is _perfectly_ in line with the centre of the workpiece.


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## screwpainting

This should be part of a book Custard, it really should. Passing on and explaining skills in simple terms with such clarity is a rare gift. 
Very professional, thank you.


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## galleywood

+1 for what 'screwpainting' said.
Thanks


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## LancsRick

Thinking it through in my minds eye custard, I assume you must have a plane where you are certain the side is perpendicular to the sole. If you try to adjust by lateral blade adjustment presumably its going to be a heavy cut to maintain 90 degrees?

I always ensure I flatten the soles of my planes but I never check for the sides being perpendicular!


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## Sideways

Superb post Custard. Thank you.
This feels like the start of a course on fundamental woodworking / furniture making skills 
For me at least, it's pitched at exactly the right level.
You've done your good deed for the day + week + month in writing this. Cheers !


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## Buckeye

Awesome again Custard. Thanks so much for sharing your learning and skills on this site in such a practical and easy to follow way


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## custard

LancsRick":2knwsv49 said:


> I assume you must have a plane where you are certain the side is perpendicular to the sole. If you try to adjust by lateral blade adjustment presumably its going to be a heavy cut to maintain 90 degrees?



I've never checked if the sides of my bench planes are 90 degrees to the sole (a shoulder plane is a different matter entirely, there it's critical). Honestly, as far as bench planes are concerned don't worry about it, I guarantee the technique works!


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## Just4Fun

Custard, can you please comment on a technique I use that you have not mentioned?
What I do is to put 2 boards side by side in the vice, and plane the 2 together. Then if I don't plane at exactly 90 degrees it doesn't matter because the error on one board has an exactly compensating error on the other board. I still try to plane at 90 degrees but don't worry too much about it, so long as I am somewhere near. I find this quicker, partly because I don't spend time getting to exactly 90 degrees and partly because I plane 2 boards at the same time.


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## LancsRick

I don't doubt you for a minute custard I just can't figure it out in my head! Unless the next board you put in upside down so Amy variance cancels out?


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## thomashenry

Great thread Custard.


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## AndyT

Agreed, that's a lovely clear explanation. Thanks again for what must have been a non-trivial amount of time and effort.

If I could add one little tip from my own experience, if you are making a table or something else with an edge jointed top, make the top first. Then measure it and size the supporting parts to suit. If you need several goes at getting the edges to match, your top may end up somewhat narrower than you expected - at least, mine did.


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## Sheffield Tony

Just4Fun":e302eg1d said:


> Custard, can you please comment on a technique I use that you have not mentioned?
> What I do is to put 2 boards side by side in the vice, and plane the 2 together. Then if I don't plane at exactly 90 degrees it doesn't matter because the error on one board has an exactly compensating error on the other board. I still try to plane at 90 degrees but don't worry too much about it, so long as I am somewhere near. I find this quicker, partly because I don't spend time getting to exactly 90 degrees and partly because I plane 2 boards at the same time.



This is what I was taught to do at school - and with thin boards at least, it seems easier to plane square when they are doubled up. But I guess with thick boards and a cambered iron, the effect of the camber becomes less useful ?


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## John15

Thanks for the above posts Custard. I struggle with the edge joint and it usually takes me several attempts to get it right. Often my problem is a gap at each end. I haven't tried the hollowing technique before but will do next time. 

John


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## Ttrees

LancsRick":sslbtti9 said:


> I don't doubt you for a minute custard I just can't figure it out in my head! Unless the next board you put in upside down so Amy variance cancels out?


I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons, I take from it that...
Its a project to show that one needs to have components that sit well on edge so you can apply this technique to assembling/marking out components with more accuracy.

I've also noticed the error at the top as is pictured as being more apparent when sitting on edge on bearers, simulating a wider panel, instead of just sitting the work on the bench, or a square against the face.
I've since ditched the titemark style marking gauge for this, (thicknessing tall stiles) and switched to a stainless steel analogue calipers instead just feeling around 
and locking it at the lowest spot in the panel, instead of striking a line around the whole panel ...I've only being doing this on door stiles for the next while, but will use this technique in future.
I use the marking gauge for marking mortises now, but the calipers for marking the tenons, getting me within test fitting tolerances. 
Another reason to get a nice low angle plane or a wooden try  
Thanks Custard


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## aspire53

I am out of words. +1 for all previous accolades. 
Thanks


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## AES

VERY many thanks to Custard for a very well-written and meticulously pictured post. That clearly did NOT take just "a few minutes" to produce and is a great service to people like me who have trouble with such "little" jobs - and I suspect quite a few other members here as well!

To the Mods: may I suggest that this is made a sticky?

Custard, the "thanks button" doesn't do you justice - many thanks Sir. =D> =D> =D>


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## Fidget

Bookmarked for later reference.

Thank you for these posts Custard


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## custard

Just4Fun":x1m7eu6b said:


> What I do is to put 2 boards side by side in the vice, and plane the 2 together. Then if I don't plane at exactly 90 degrees it doesn't matter because the error on one board has an exactly compensating error on the other board.



I'll sometimes do the same thing, especially when I'm edge jointing saw cut veneers. It certainly can work, but there are some potential pitfalls,

-you need a straight rather than a cambered edge to the iron. Getting a truly straight edge is actually harder than it looks, I suspect most people end up with some small degree of camber even if they don't realise it.

-holding two boards together, so that the top edges are _tight_ against each other isn't always that straightforward. And the longer and wider the boards the greater the problem. In hand tool only workshops you would probably only have one true reference face on each board, which then also has to be taken into account.

-there's every chance if you use this technique that you'll be planing _against_ the grain on at least one of the boards. No problems you may say, just use a closely set cap iron. That's true, but I mentioned earlier how many less experienced woodworkers struggle to commence the cut cleanly. With a closely set cap iron (or a high pitched frog, or a steeply pitched bevel up plane) this problem, of massacring the first inch of the cut, increases exponentially. 

There are work arounds for these issues, but I'm just pointing out that this technique isn't the simple, silver bullet solution that its sometimes portrayed as in the books and on YouTube!


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## Just4Fun

Good points Custard. 


> I'm just pointing out that this technique isn't the simple, silver bullet solution that its sometimes portrayed as in the books and on YouTube!


Nothing ever is, unfortunately. However I am happy that you haven't identified any big issue I have been missing and the workarounds for the problems are all things I have been doing for years. Whether I was taught those workarounds or hit on them by luck is lost in the mists of time.


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## novocaine

well that was an interesting read, thanks Custard. 

In my day to day working life I do a lot of training, as part of this I train trainers (not the running sort) and over the past few months it has become somewhat apparent to me that the hardest thing to teach someone is something you've been doing for so long that it's second nature to you. I think this is a case in point, where unless you stand back and watch what you are doing for an hour it's impossible to get someone else to understand. 

So, thank you for taking the time to explain this in terms that others can understand with clear pictures, I'm sure what would have been a 5 minute job for you to do must have taken an few hours in this circumstance.


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## delboy47

So well put together and done. Agree with the comments already expressed. Great job thank you.


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## LancsRick

What is your recommended clamping approach Custard when gluing boards up? In the past when I have tried this I have ended up with the boards wanting to bow, but is that an issue with my edges having a convex profile, or my clamping technique?


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## thick_mike

Many thanks for taking the time to post this Custard.

Your generosity makes this site one of my favourites.


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## custard

LancsRick":3nk7l1ig said:


> What is your recommended clamping approach?



You make a very good point, it doesn't matter how good your edge jointing is if the glue-up goes pear shaped!

I guess the first thing to say is that hide glue has a lot of advantages for edge jointing, and you don't even need the original hide glue that you heat up in a double boiler. Easy to use liquid hide glues, like this one,

https://www.axminster.co.uk/titebond-li ... ue-ax22595

work just as well for a rubbed joint. 

The advantages are you don't need any cramps, you just put one component in your vice and apply a decent wiggly bead of liquid hide glue along it's length, rub the joint together to even out the glue and expel any excess. Soon you feel it start to "bite", then get the two components lined up exactly as you want and leave them in the vice for a few minutes. After that you can take them out of the vice and prop them up in an out of the way location for a couple of hours while the glue cures. It's absolutely 100% strong enough for virtually any furniture making application, squeeze out clean up is dead easy, and if by any chance you're unhappy with the result it's fairly straightforward to undo the glue joint with a damp rag and a steam iron, fix the problem and try again.

Staying with the notion of using your vice as a glue-up aid, there's a trick that's often used in professional workshops for lightly stressed, edge-jointed components, such as panels for frame and panel work, or small tops for occasional tables.

Step one is to place one component off-centre in your vice,






Step two is to apply the glue then place the second component on top, like this,





Then finally you use one, lightweight cramp in the centre, like this,





Your edge jointing needs to be pretty accurate, with a minute hollow to give you a slightly "sprung" joint, and you also have to have the knack of tightening up a cramp without twisting the components out of line. But if you can do all that, then this is a super fast method. With a fast setting glue like Titebond 1, you can store the glued and cramped components in an out of the way location for 30-40 minutes, and as long as you're careful they'll then be ready for the next stage in your build.

But if you want to do the full monty glue-up then here's how I go about the job. I'm not saying this the best or only way, but it is an approach that consistently delivers first class results for me.

The first thing is that I always use bearers rather than resting the workpiece direct on the sash cramps.





These bearers are either waxed or covered in parcel tape to prevent the glue sticking to them, and they bring two huge advantages. Firstly you can shim them so the bearers form a totally flat plane for the work to sit on, which prevents any twist or wind being introduced at the glue-up stage. Secondly they're sized so they're a bit deeper than the "spines" of your sash cramps. This keeps the work floating above the sash cramps, which makes glue squeeze out removal much easier, plus it also prevents the risk of "iron stain", which is what happens when a timber like Oak, high in tannins, touches steel in the presence of moisture (which most glues will provide plenty of!).

You then do a dry glue-up. You _always_ do a dry glue-up, no matter how experienced you are and how many times you've done the job, this final dress rehearsal is the last chance to check you've everything you need, it's all working properly, and the workpiece lines up exactly as you need.





Next step is to apply a thin layer of glue to both components to ensure they're thoroughly "wetted out"





You then apply cramp pressure, starting in the centre and working out, checking for a bead of squeeze out all the way along as you go,





Now, if you want, you can carefully lift the glued-up assembly off the bearers and check for an even bead of squeeze out underneath,





And the gaps left by the carefully sized bearers mean you have full access for cleaning up squeeze out,





With all the squeeze out removed (on critical jobs I usually do three repetitions of scrubbing with clean, boiling water) you can set the piece back down and do a final check for straight and flat,





Finally, a couple of little wrinkles that may be useful. 

Sash cramps rarely apply pressure at exactly the angle you expect. The "shoes" sometimes angle back, or the "spine" bends upwards under pressure. Having cramps top and bottom helps. But sometimes you'll need cramping blocks on the outer edges with a "D" shaped profile, this profile automatically adjusts for out of true sash cramps, and delivers the pressure perpendicular to the joint.

Another point is that I hardly ever use biscuits, dowels, splines, or dowels. I don't believe they add any useful strength and they bring with them a load of hassles. The exception might be if I'm working single handed on a really big job. Then I might use one or at the very most two biscuits, inserted dry, in the centre of the workpiece, and this is purely to assist in alignment. If you've edge jointed properly you really don't need anything else.


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## LancsRick

As ever custard the quality of your guidance is brilliant, thank you. Sounds like I may be limiting myself to the final option at present (or second option) as I'm using pva.

I also have clamp envy..


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## Sheffield Tony

custard":2bt7gjsd said:


> Secondly they're sized so they're a bit deeper than the "spines" of your sash cramps. This keeps the work floating above the sash cramps, which makes glue squeeze out removal much easier, plus it also prevents the risk of "iron stain", which is what happens when a timber like Oak, high in tannins, touches steel in the presence of moisture (which most glues will provide plenty of!).



Good tip, found this the hard way glueing up some oak door panels. All that effort to get a super good joint, and it had thin black dashes where the glue touched the clamps #-o


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## Duncan A

Just found this thread. Absolutely superb Custard, many, many thanks.
I don't make furniture or anything of that sort, but it is nevertheless useful to know what I'm supposed to be doing when edge joining. You must have spent a lot of time putting this post together and, as others have said, the result is worthy of inclusion in a book.
Since it's not a book, do you have a favourite charity to which contributions could be made?
Duncan


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## custard

You're welcome Duncan. Despite there being no end of YouTube videos I'm conscious that a lot of the critical information needed to successfully make furniture is either missing or is just plain wrong. So I try and do my bit to lay out the cabinet making practises that work for me. I'm not saying these are the only way or even the best way, but they're methods that I've found deliver good quality results.


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## SammyQ

> Solo Cramps are a good cramp, cheap and with plenty of workshop applications, but they have a tendency to let go under vibration.



Sheesh...honest? I've done almost all my amateur routing with them and never had a problem. I guess, Fate is waiting for that irreplaceable component to teach me this one. :shock: 

Sam


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## johnnyb

This technique was one I saw in the boys workshop companion. It was my favourite book as a child! I can't remember ever trying it though! 
One technique not mentioned is to attach a fence to your plane to shoot 90 degree joints. Popular in technical schools in the 50s apparently. Actually better for planing angled edges though.
Superb post custard really practical and detailed.


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## Docile

Excellent contribution, Custard. Thanks for taking the time and effort. Loads of useful learning points.


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## large red

Thanks Custard, that was a really clear, informative and interesting . I normally plane and get good results, even if the boards do occasionally get quite a bit smaller! 
I have used a simillar router method and while it was successful I found it to be awkward and surprisingly slow. I must get around to making a template up for the router table with toggle clamps to hold the work.


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## will_s87

thanks for taking the time to write this up. 

you mention using a D profile on the sash clamps to provide clamping pressure perpendicular to work piece, I've had some success with using dowels. 

Will


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## El Barto

This is such a great topic so thanks Custard. My two pence to the process is that quality cramps really make such a difference to what is an already stressful process, especially for a newcomer.

When I built my workbench and had to laminate the top, I bought cheap aluminium sash cramps a la Paul Sellers and followed his advice about reinforcing them with wooden strips. In hindsight I would splash out for high or higher quality cramps if I could as the cheap ones are terrible. The heads frequently bind to the bar and the little rubber grommets on the handles fall off all the time - I found myself faffing about with making them work correctly instead of focussing on the glue up. So I think that's probably an area of the beginner woodworker's kit list that is often overlooked. I used them for a glue up tonight and they were utterly useless and so back into the corner they'll go.

However I did get a couple of these the other day and they have been very good and also reasonably priced: https://www.axminster.co.uk/axminster-t ... p-ax945578

Thanks again Custard.


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## gwd

Many thanks, Many useful tips that I will use to improve my jointing.


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## G S Haydon

Thanks for that. Excellent post and got some good info.


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## Ed Turtle

custard":314q7srv said:


> Sash cramps rarely apply pressure at exactly the angle you expect. The "shoes" sometimes angle back, or the "spine" bends upwards under pressure. Having cramps top and bottom helps. But sometimes you'll need cramping blocks on the outer edges with a "D" shaped profile, this profile automatically adjusts for out of true sash cramps, and delivers the pressure perpendicular to the joint.


I'm sorry if this is obvious, but to me i cant quite work out how this works! Could you explain further please?

Thanks


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## custard

I hope this sketch explains.







At the top is a sash cramp tightening up on a workpiece. The jaws of the sash cramp are splayed out (exaggerated, but most cramps are in fact slightly splayed in this direction) as a consequence they're pushing on the bottom corner of the workpiece and so making the workpiece bow upward in the middle.

At the bottom is the same arrangement, but this time with D shaped cramping blocks. These cramping blocks compensate for the splay of the jaws and prevent the workpiece bowing up in the centre.


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## John Brown

Not seen this thread before, I can only echo what others have said - you should gather all this stuff together in a book of some sort.
John


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## Ed Turtle

custard":3mitlfwu said:


> I hope this sketch explains.
> 
> 
> 
> At the top is a sash cramp tightening up on a workpiece. The jaws of the sash cramp are splayed out (exaggerated, but most cramps are in fact slightly splayed in this direction) as a consequence they're pushing on the bottom corner of the workpiece and so making the workpiece bow upward in the middle.
> 
> At the bottom is the same arrangement, but this time with D shaped cramping blocks. These cramping blocks compensate for the splay of the jaws and prevent the workpiece bowing up in the centre.



Thanks, that does make sense!


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## AES

Could I suggest to the Mods that this thread be made a sticky please? Far too much good info to have to go looking for in the main body of the Forum after a little time has passed.


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## AndyT

AES":1pgr74vj said:


> Could I suggest to the Mods that this thread be made a sticky please? Far too much good info to have to go looking for in the main body of the Forum after a little time has passed.



It already is- great minds think alike!


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## chris watford

Thank you, most enlightening and accomplished 

I have only worked with hardwood a couple of times, and this thread has spurred me on to try
Think to myself, you have the tools, get on with it :wink: 

Chris


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## Suffolkboy

I'm slowly building my first solo, large project which has involved a lot of edge jointing, this thread (along with pretty much anything and everything else you have posted Custard.) has been immensely helpful as a reference point and my work, and satisfaction derived from the quality of that work has benefitted greatly as I am sure many other hobby woodworkers have. Thanks again for taking the time to do this.


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## Osvaldd

What about jointing boards that are thicker than your hand plane blade?


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## AndyT

Osvaldd":1albk600 said:


> What about jointing boards that are thicker than your hand plane blade?



Do you have an example in mind?
My widest planes have a 2 1/2" iron. If you are working with wood thicker than that, you're not making furniture.
Maybe a wooden ship, a bridge or a set of lock gates?


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## Osvaldd

A ship?  

I'm making a workbench top from 3"x3"
as in this thread:
post1278096.html#p1278096


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## AndyT

Aah, well, I'd say that your edges are on top and you are joining faces together.
Follow your preferred method for flattening surfaces, glue and clamp.
Plenty of good bench threads and videos available.


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## custard

If you're jointing really thick timbers then there's a massive glue surface, which gives you a healthy safety margin. For a bench top I really wouldn't stress too much about invisible glue lines and all the other cabinet making stuff. As long as it's reasonably straight and gap free then you'll be fine.

If you're super picky you can set a lightly cambered iron for a fine finishing cut and work out from the centre, then you'll get a really tight glue line, but it's really not necessary.


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## D_W

Osvaldd":2qiil3f7 said:


> What about jointing boards that are thicker than your hand plane blade?



You joint them just like facing a wide board. My plane billets and guitar blanks are generally wider than the planes that I have. I usually rough them to a standard where they will not move on my bench top as I've got an area deliberately planed to flatness within a few thousandths on my bench top - just for the task. 

I generally joint or face whichever side is flat sawn first as the quartered side that follows to make a 90 degree face to the edge or edge to the face will be easier to work if it's the quartered side. 

You remove the high spots that you find as a matter of method, not work the whole area. You'll find once you've done that, you're most of the way done. 

Use the cap iron - whether you get annoyed by hearing that or not - for the truing work - you'll work far more accurately if the plane you're using stays in the cut and removes a uniform amount from end to end and starts a cut staying in the cut.


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## D_W

Osvaldd":ynnprrh6 said:


> A ship?
> 
> I'm making a workbench top from 3"x3"
> as in this thread:
> post1278096.html#p1278096



I would worry more about the faces on these boards, that they're clean/flat and relatively co planar to each other. Then glue up with as little riff raff as possible on the top and bottom and plane that. 

I made my bench out of wood that I didn't favor doing much jointing on, at least not more than I had to. Ash a little thicker than 2" before planing, and then ran it through a thickness planer. I'd normally do something like that by hand, but I wanted a bench more than I wanted to build a bench. Planing the final glued up assembly to flatness was pretty easy then - easier than doing finish jointing on the boards themselves. 

If you're working by hand, get one face flat and then strike a thickness mark and just plane to it and save the initial jointing only for rough work.


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## monster

Thanks for that Custard, learnt a lot reading through that!


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## BradNaylor

Great post Custard; it's always good to be reminded how things *should* be done!

Personally, I just joint my boards on the table saw. A sharp blade with plenty of teeth and the finish is perfectly good enough. I've got a decent saw, though.

I'm retiring soon though, and giving up my Norm-style workshop. I will be working out of a shed at home with only hand tools - well okay, maybe a bandsaw and router table!

I'm kinda looking forward to regressing to my college days and picking up a hand plane again! 

Secret mitred dovetails, anyone?


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## CHJ

BradNaylor":3nz4madq said:


> ...
> I'm retiring soon though, and giving up my Norm-style workshop. I will be working out of a shed at home with only hand tools - well okay, maybe a bandsaw and router table!
> 
> I'm kinda looking forward to regressing to my college days and picking up a hand plane again!
> 
> ..



Welcome back Brad, 'long time no see' hope you enjoy the increased leisure time on the horizon.


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## David Martin

Fantastic post Custard. Thanks for the effort you've taken to make such a clear and informative tutorial.

The clamps I use are pretty poor quality so the D-shaped blocks trick is something I've used quite a bit. I usually make these by splitting 1" thick dowel rod in half with the band saw and chopping to 3" lengths. I always seem to need to make more each time I need them though... I think there are wood eating faeries living in my garage :roll:


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## Democritus

Just4Fun said:


> Custard, can you please comment on a technique I use that you have not mentioned?
> What I do is to put 2 boards side by side in the vice, and plane the 2 together. Then if I don't plane at exactly 90 degrees it doesn't matter because the error on one board has an exactly compensating error on the other board. I still try to plane at 90 degrees but don't worry too much about it, so long as I am somewhere near. I find this quicker, partly because I don't spend time getting to exactly 90 degrees and partly because I plane 2 boards at the same time.


The late, great, Charles Hayward recommended this technique for edge jointing. When jointing 3 or more boards, you had to ensure the mating planed surfaces were marked very carefully, or you could end up in a real mess.
This was largely, of course, in the days when most such joints were hand planed, certainly by amateur cabinet makers.
Great thread, Custard.
D.


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## Hornbeam

Putting 2 boards back to back and planing them together can work but if you have a cambered blade you will get a slight misalignment. Generally works Ok for thin boards but not for thicker ones
Ian


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## Democritus

Ian, I think you’re right, but I have successfully edged jointed boards for cabinet tops, carcass sides etc, up to about 3/4 inch thick using this method, sometimes simply rubbed, sometimes dowelled. I found it easier with the thicker boards than the thin. I have never done it with anything thicker than about 3/4 inch, but I can see that it might be problematic.
I have always been an amateur cabinet maker, using mainly hand tool methods, but I haven’t done any cabinet work for nearly ten years because I no longer have the energy to hand plane large boards etc anymore. I have taken up woodturning instead, where the energy is supplied by the lathe.
D.


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## g1_lo

custard said:


> Edge jointing means joining up narrower pieces of wood to make a wider board. It's something you have to do with nearly all furniture projects, because most boards sold today are less than 300mm wide, and the majority are in the range 150-200mm wide. So if you want a table top, or a chair seat, or a panel for frame and panel work, then you'll have to learn to edge joint.
> 
> When it goes as planned it looks like this. You start with a board that has at least one true face, and you then cut an edge that's at _exactly_ 90 degrees to the reference face all along its length,
> View attachment 70723
> 
> 
> You also need this edge to be dead straight, or possibly with a _minute_ hollow in the centre, but on no account must it have any trace of a "bump" when tested with either a wooden or metal straight edge,
> View attachment 70724
> 
> 
> When you've repeated that process on a second board they should sit together _perfectly_,
> View attachment 70720
> 
> 
> Which means when they're cramped for the glue up there's an invisible glue line and you can rest a straight edge across them, and the resulting table top (or panel, or whatever) is perfectly flat with no visible gap,
> View attachment 70722
> 
> View attachment 70721
> 
> 
> So, how do you set about doing this?
> 
> There are plenty of different approaches, but I'll take you through the approach I use, which I know is shared by many other cabinet makers.
> 
> I guess the first thing to say is that the very best glue lines will come from a sharp bench plane. With the right machinery you can produce a good edge straight from a machine,
> View attachment 70723
> 
> 
> But if you look carefully at a planed or sawn edge you'll still find traces of machine marks, these for example are the tell-tale ripples from a planer,
> View attachment 70724
> 
> 
> And that's from a good planer, where the knives are always kept sharp. But most hobbyists aren't in that position, they may have a planer with a fence that has a slight twist along it's length, or the knives are bit blunt, or it's prone to snipe. Or they may not have a planer at all, and be relying on a lunch box/bench top type thicknesser, or even just hand tools.
> 
> That shouldn't be a problem. For many years I had a small workshop that could only accommodate a bench top thicknesser and a band saw, yet I managed to produce plenty of edge jointed components to the highest standards. And with a bit of application so can you.
> 
> I've reached the photo limit for a single post, so I'll continue in the next post.


Nice details in here for those that don't have super sharp or accurate electrical planers. Nice bit of American Cherry you had in the photos as well always looks nice.


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## Reffc

Really great post Custard, thank you for posting. I can only accommodate a small table thicknesser in my 'shop and rely on a fine tooth TCT bladed table saw and sharp hand plane to do any edge jointing I need. I can learn a lot from what you've posted and look forward to putting it into practice.


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