Mortice & Tenon or Bridle Joint?

[Smudger]

I'm making a small practice piece out of maple to try out different joints - as you are aware by this point I'm a total novice, so this really is a voyage of discovery.

The door is Shaker style, plain rails and stiles, rebated behind and filled with 10mm t&g. Size is 12" x 9", 2" rails.

Yesterday I tried a version with bridle joints, and it worked but looked pretty terrible - bad accuracy and sawing. Would M&T be easier? It seems to me that errors would be harder to make and easier to hide.

Any opinions/advice?

 

[Chris Knight]

Dick,

A bridle joint should be simpler although as you observe, errors are hard to hide.

There are a few vital skills in using hand tools and in no particular order I put them like this:-

1. Sharpening
2. Sawing,
3. Chiselling
4. Planing
5. Marking and layout

Sawing is probably the hardest in my book. Sawing accurately to a line saves countless hours of faffing about afterwards and it should be practised and practised endlessly. Making joints is a waste of time when practising sawing. You can saw many dozen practice cuts of various kinds in the time it takes to make one bad tenon fit an indifferent mortice.

Practise sawing until cutting a line cleanly in half along its length and square to the wood is easy and you will find all your joints start to fit like you dreamed they might.

I can guarantee that two days invested in sawing practice now will be saved in week of making finished joints.