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Who knew that the simple task (not even that much of a challenge really) of creating specific (preferred, desired?) basic profiles on a lump of wood could result in such a heated discussion? As Jacob said, and I think Adam is reinforcing, creating that profile by starting with a block of wood of...

At 15:27 minutes the maker in the video starts cutting one of the shoulder lines for the tenon. His approach is exactly the same methodology I was taught, gosh, I don't really want to think about it really, but more than fifty years ago. Much the same as I was taught, he starts at the corner...

Are you saying he's aiming to get a good fit to shoulder lines straight from the saw in hand work? As far as I'm aware that's always been the aim, certainly at a professional level, whatever the wood species. I've not heard the "riding the line with the saw" description, but to hear an...

No idea then. Sorry. I'm not quite sure why you mentioned 9 X 2 in your reply as I thought newel posts are more commonly 4 X 4, or perhaps bigger. Typo on your part? Slainte.

Rift sawn? That is, with the growth rings, as seen from the end, running pretty much from one corner to the corner diagonally opposite. Slainte.

Oh, so we did. Sorry. The trouble with meeting people at shows as someone keeping an eye on a stand is that you meet so many that you forget who you've met. And I'm hopeless with remembering names anyway, even if I recall the face, ha, ha. Slainte.

If you do make it pop over to the Classic Hand Tools stand where I'll be keeping and eye on their Lost Art Press section. We haven't met face to face, even though we've exchanged messages, and I'd like to be able to put a face to a name. Slainte.

Interesting. If I've understood your description I know that as a wedged through tenon, which has the same appearance as the M&T I showed in the picture of the stretcher rail of the table in my earlier post. To me, if the wedges are driven from the outside of the through mortice into saw kerfs...

Oh, I will, and do, ha, ha. They're also strong You'll never come across through tenons with foxtail wedges because there's no such thing. The fox wedged tenon relies on there being a stopped or blind mortice the bottom of which is what drives the wedges into place. I've seen people put...

The "just for enthusiasts and magazine articles, not to be taken seriously" comment from you is interesting. I notice rogxwhit seems to express somewhat similar sentiment towards driving wedges into a couple of saw kerfs with a relief hole at the bottom of the kerfs to form the wedged M&T. I've...

You're correct Adam. I misspoke in error and you spotted it Thanks. I'll make a correction here and leave the original as it is on the basis that anyone that's read this far will see the correction. All the same, any oak larger than about 100 mm square in section is going to take years to air...

You're not implying that I said timber will retain moisture indefinitely, are you? I didn't, but I have experience of large beams of timber (oak) that have been air drying outside sometimes for a few years where the shell is quite dry but the core is very wet. You may well be right about air...

It will be a deliberate choice. The practicalities, time required and cost of kiln drying large baulks of oak for this type of job would be enormous, and a very large failure rate is highly likely, e.g., case-hardening, core collapse, honeycombing, shakes/checking, etc. Oak is a particularly...

Agreed. Wood in roof spaces tends to settle out at somewhere between 16% and 18% MC. That applies primarily to occupied buildings, e.g., houses and commercial buildings. At what MC the wood in the roof space of Notre Dame cathedral will be dependent upon how the building is used and what climate...

You're right. Kiln drying is a relatively modern innovation so anything made out of wood before about the late nineteenth century would have been either air dried or green. Big lumps of oak used for the construction of barns, cathedrals, churches, large houses, etc would have, at best, had some...

Use the complementary angle, i.e., tilt the blade to 40º. Alternatively raise the corner of the piece furthest away from the saw's fence to raise the bottom face of the piece you're ripping by 5º, tilt the blade to 45º and cut. You can use other numbers, e.g., lift up the bottom face of the...

Burning for durability is an old fence builder's trick used for the posts that go into the ground. As others have said the burning undertaken is pretty severe to confer additional longevity in ground contacting wood. Slainte.

If your pyramid parts have a base edge cut at 15º this means the sides form an angle (lean inwards from the base line) at 75º. By saying pyramid I assume you're talking of a four sided structure. Therefore the first number you require is 93.8º for the dihedral angle which means to mitre the...

Agreed. An excellent example for using a guide bush plus template rather than a bearing guided bit is making cash till cut-outs in pay station tops. e.g., for bank and building societies. A template, plus guide bush, plus a 12 -16 mm diameter cutter, plus powerful plunge router will do the job...

1/2" Brad/Spur drill. Slainte.