Blanched

Having just finished a fairly major project, I'm really at a bit of a 'loose end' regarding another big job, but I've got one or two ideas kicking around for another cabinet of some sort, based loosely on a Japanese theme of some sort using exposed joinery, but how I'm going to do it and what it's going to look like...I've no idea, not a sausage!

I did remember though, that I had a 'foto-copy of an article from FWW about making a right angle corner joint, or 'kane tsugi'. In the square part of the joint (which is locked by a peg) lurks a hidden bridle joint, so although it looks fairly straight forward to make, there's a lot more too it. I thought I'd have a go with an oddment of mahogany, using a piece of ebony for the square peg.

In the article (which I read with a foreboding sense of deja vu), the author, being from far distant lands across the big pond, uses an unguarded table saw blade to cut some of the joint. Whilst I have a high regard for much that happens in American woodworking circles, their cavalier attitude to 'elf n'safety makes me turn pale...indeed many of their 'shop machinery practices have been illegal in Europe for decades.

Marking out and cutting were fairly straight forward, the only tricky bit was making the tenon for the bridle ( a router is the easiest and most accurate way to do that) and some judicious work with paring chisels saw the joint completed. Believe it or not, the little square pin was the hardest part to get 'spot on' as I cut the bevels once it was glued in place. I think a little work on the peg beforehand (using the mitre shooting board) is needed when I do it for real.














I also had a go at a simple through dovetail, with the end of the tail exposed and rounded over. Easy enough, but again some care needed in the cleaning up and just as a little exercise, I'm making a small Krenovianish box in English Oak with this sort of jointing...