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Sawing a Tenon

Most of us have cut a good many mortice and tenon joints over the years. It occurred to me today to ask a question about something we likely take for granted: Do you saw the cheek first, or the shoulder, and how far to the intersection do you go?

For myself I saw the cheeks (as close to the markings as possible) ...

.. and stop a smidgeon short of the shoulder line.

Having created a knife fence on the shoulder line, I saw the shoulder close to but a smidgeon short of the cheek line ...

Then it is a case of back-and-forth to sever the bit between ..

It will eventually pop off nice and clean ..

The vanity cheek may now be sawn. This is 1/8" (3mm) ...

.. or the haunch created. The haunches are for the upper side of the panels, with the blind M&T at the lower end (as they do not go all the way to the bottom) ..

I am now ready to measure and fit to mortices, and then complete the mitres for the coves, and fine tune the shoulders ...

Ready for the weekend ...

Regards from Perth

Derek

May 2015