Hi, you are of course correct to be skeptical, but you are wrong, maybe you have made your comment based on an incorrect assumption. First of all, the joints that i did are not slip-tenons/loose tenons, they are integral tenons, cut not inserted. Second, the photo of the tight tenon is in the chair that i am sat on, so not impossible to verify. The chair is the extra or test one that i made when making a set of ten for a customer., so I have used it daily for the past 30 years, mostly rocking on the back legs, so the joints have held up well. If i wanted to be real fussy I would use quartersawn to minimize movement, but this has held up well, maybe because i do the joints tight on the ends. I have done lots of slip tenons, but i always did them tight also. I have never intentionally done gaps in joinery, joinery shouldn't have gaps in my book.
The round-end mortise and tenons were done on Balestrini machines.
This is the round end tenoner, infinitely variable (within its range) adjustable width, length, depth, radius. Scoring knives and chamfer knives.
Me cutting tenons for chair slats 35 years ago.
Here you can see my helper Danny with his hand on the mortising machine.
I made hundreds of credit card cases with slip tenons, no gaps in those either.
