Q:
I’m making a chair, and the front is wider than the back. The side rails and legs are joined with mortise-and-tenons. Should I use angled mortises with straight tenons, or straight mortises with angled tenons?
Bill Eckel, Lowell, MA
A:
An angled mortise with a straight tenon is more difficult to make (the tenon has angled shoulders), but it is a better choice for two reasons. First, because the tenon is straight, the grain runs along its length, making it strong. On angled tenons, the grain can dive toward one side, making the tenon weaker and prone to breaking. Second, after assembly a straight tenon in an angled mortise resists the stresses of racking very well, and the chair as a whole is stronger.
By the way, when building a chair with angled mortises and straight tenons, you must assemble the sides first and then attach the front and back rails. If you do it in the opposite order, you won’t be able to get the chair together because the ends of the straight tenons won’t line up with the mortise openings.
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Comments
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May 31, 2012 - I hope that this reaches Bill Eckel of Lowell Mass. USA because I would suggest the standard method as the better of the two ways for him to go ...
Funny, Miller has an article in 2017 on how to make an angled tenon and not an angled mortise. Which is better? If the mortise is better why did he do an angled tenon in 2017 on exactly the same construction.
It's all about the situation. If you're making ten of something, or one of something, the answer changes, as with many other variables. Both are valid arguments.
Working an a new chair design made me revisit chair making. If you are making a side chair is it unlikely you are making one or two. I guess it comes down to the Krenov way vs time and money. There is a old article from Gorden "Reflections of Risk on Pure Craft". I guess that is what you mean. Many corporations feel this way. The customer will have to buy another one to replace it. It's always a challenge to find the right clientele that can afford the best we can offer.
It is not better. An angled mortise forces you to shorten the back rail tenons.
See Will Neptune, and every decent British chairmaker of the last 350 years.
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