5 Ways to Make a Mortise

A hole is just a hole, no matter how you dig it. The mortise-and-tenon joint is fundamental in woodworking. Along with the dovetail, this joint has been used for thousands of years. If you judge [...]

8 Ways to Make Tenons

A quick guide to the pros and cons of how to make the difficult part of a classic joint. Many pieces of old handmade furniture owe their long life to mortise and tenon joints. There are many [...]

Classic Door Joinery

How to make strong mortise and tenon joints with a plunge router and a tablesaw. Imagine turning the clock back 500 years and visiting a fellow woodworker in any large European town. You could [...]

Cut Tenons on Curved Parts

Demystify cutting tenons on curved parts using these simple steps and jigs. Ever wonder how furniture builders cut joinery on curved parts? A common place to see this is on chair backrests, [...]

The Wedged Mortise & Tenon

This time-tested joint is perfect for knockdown furniture. This bedstead I’m building is a perfect place to use a joint that I rarely cut: the wedged, through-mortise and tenon. I need to be able [...]

The Indispensable Mortise & Tenon

Drawbore it for a joint that will last centuries. I once had a visitor to my shop remark that he’d like to see a book about all the types of joints that I use. I told him it’d be a …

Accurate and Easy Joint-depth Gauge

A straight mortise-and-tenon joint requires each tenon cheek to be flat, of consistent thickness and parallel to the body of the workpiece. If a cheek is twisted or angled relative to the faces [...]

Arts & Crafts Through-tenons

One of my favorite Arts & Crafts details is the through-tenon at the top of a table, bookcase or chair. When I was considering adding a joinery class to my curriculum at the Barnard [...]

Jigs for Perfect Mortise & Tenon Joints

These jigs help you hand cut flawless mortise-and-tenon joints. By Jeff Miller Mortise-and-tenon joints tend to frustrate woodworkers far more than dovetails do. That’s no mystery; they are [...]

Q & A: The Right Mortise / Tenon Fit

Q: What’s the right fit between a mortise and a tenon? I’m going crazy trying to measure them with a dial caliper! A: You’re not alone. This question has bugged just about every woodworker, but [...]

Most-asked Woodworking Questions

Throughout the years I’ve been here at Popular Woodworking Magazine, there are only two woodworking questions that find their way into my inbox on a regular basis. The number of times [...]

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