Woodwork Joints | Page 7

exact
width and thickness. The two pieces may then be placed upon the
bench (as shown at Fig. 63) or fixed in the vice.
Find the centre of the timber, C, Fig. 63, and set out half the width of

the wood on each side of the dotted centre line. Thus, suppose the
wood (W) to be 2 ins. wide, then set 1 in. on each side of the centre line.
Take a square as at Fig. 64, and with a sharp penknife blade score or
cut a line all round each piece of timber.
[Illustration: Fig. 65.--Using the Marking Gauge.]
Next take up a marking gauge, and set the marking point to half the
thickness of the wood. The distance may be measured, and its exactness
tested, by pricking a small hole from each side of the wood with the
marking gauge and carefully noting that the pricked holes coincide. The
gauge mark is clearly shown in the various illustrations. Now, take a
pencil and scribble or mark "waste" on the parts you intend to cut away.
This will save trouble later on, especially if you are making several
joints at once. Take your sharp penknife or marking knife blade, and
cut fairly deeply into the marked line on the portion you are going to
pare away.
[Illustration: Fig. 66.--Chiselling away Wood up to Gauge Line.]
[Illustration: Fig. 67.--How work is held when Sawing Shoulder.]
Fix the wood firmly in your vice, or against your cutting board or
bench stop, as may be more convenient to you, and with a sharp chisel
cut away the wood up to the marked line, as at Fig. 66. The channel in
the sketch is exaggerated, so as to show the method clearly. The object
of using a penknife or marking knife to mark your work, instead of
using a pencil, will be obvious. Owing to the knife having scored about
1/16 in. deep across the fibres of the wood, the timber will come away
cleanly when the chisel is used, as at Fig. 66. The small channel thus
made will form a guide in which to start your tenon or dovetail saw; it
prevents the saw cutting on the wrong side of the marked line and thus
making the halving too wide.
[Illustration: Fig. 68.--Paring away Waste with Chisel.]
[Illustration: Fig. 69.--Showing an Oblique Halved Joint.]

SAWING.--Lay the work on the cutting board as at Fig. 67; or, if you
prefer, put the work in the vice. Carefully saw down the work until you
just touch the gauge line. Do not press heavily with the saw; use it
lightly; the weight of the back iron which is fixed on the saw will
ensure the saw feeding into the work quite fast enough. If the saw is
newly sharpened it will, in fact, be an advantage to slightly ease the
weight of the saw from off the wood, owing to the keenness of its edge.
If the halving is a very wide one, additional cuts may be sawn between
the outside marks, and these will greatly facilitate the removal of the
waste wood when paring it away. For sawing the joint reference may be
made to the chapter on Dovetailing.
[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Sawing the Cheek of a Halving Joint.]
PARING away the waste material with a chisel is the next step, and this
is shown at Fig. 68. The work may be chiselled either in a vertical or a
horizontal position. The horizontal position is the easiest for the
amateur who has a vice or handscrew, because he may hold the work
securely with a mechanical device and so avoid the unnecessary risk to
his fingers.
Take the chisel and cut away A, Fig. 68; now turn the chisel and cut
away B; after which keep the chisel horizontal and cut off "the top of
the hill," as it were, C. Repeat the three operations until you gradually
pare the wood away exactly to the gauge line. When chiselling, if you
find a tendency for the work to chip or crumble at the back edge owing
to the forward pressure of the chisel, turn your wood round and begin
to cut from the other edge, allowing the chisel to finish paring at the
centre.
JOINTS OTHER THAN A RIGHT ANGLE.--If the halving joint is at
an angle similar to the sketch shown at Fig. 69, great care will have to
be exercised in the use of the chisel, owing to the change in the
direction of the grain of the wood. The arrow marks in this sketch
distinctly indicate the direction in which the chiselling must be done so
as to give a smooth result. This change of direction for cutting also
applies to the bottom of the halving joint.

CUTTING JOINT AT END OF TIMBER