Replies

1. 
   DougF | Nov 30, 2004 05:45pm | #1

   Do you mean that the tenon appears to come all the way through?  If so, that is referred to a "through tenon" and is quite common on furniture styles such as mission, craftsman and prairie.  This joinery technique is also used to provide added holding power when using heavier timbers that will demensionally shift or become loose through heavy use by driving wedges into the end of the through tenons.  Shop work benches and treddle tables are 2 examples.

   Doug

1. 
   budreaux | Nov 30, 2004 07:08pm | #4

   It did come all the way through.  The interesting part to me was that the tenon extended from an ogee stile & rail door frame.  It may be common but I have never seen it or just haven't noticed it.  Just seemed odd doubling up on the joinery for a cupboard door frame.

2. 
   notDusty | Nov 30, 2004 06:11pm | #2

                      treefreak ,

             Another application where through tenons were often used were found on wooden window frames , or sash frames . The way it was done , a mortiser or a chain mortiser was often used in conjunction with table saw and end tennoner. Hand planes were probably used for some also .On sash frame windows the joints were almost always pinned with a short fat steel pin like a nail. Even if the glue failed the joint would not easily come apart . The through tenons were for strength , not just for looks , as in some newer pieces of furniture .

                            dusty

                        

3. 
   JohnWW | Nov 30, 2004 07:00pm | #3

   Don't confuse antique with hand made.  By the 1880's most of the furniture being made in the U.S. was being mass produced in factories with fairly sophisticated power driven machinery. 

   The joint you were looking at could very well have been machine made and would be impractical to make with hand tools or light power tools.

   John W.