Need Advice - How to perfect a tenon

[Matt Hutchinson]

So I have been focusing on woodturning for the last 8 years, but my first love is furniture making. I am wanting to get back into it, and I need to refine all my hand tool skills, as well as add tools to my inventory. One of my greatest needs is something to clean up tenons accurately. I know some people recommend router planes to dial in tenons, but what about a rabbet plane/shoulder plane?

Which methods, tools, and brands do you prefer? Also, I am not limiting this question to new tools/companies only.

Thanks,

Hutch

[Trevor Walsh]

I like the router plane to flatten and make the tenon coplanar with the stock, and I like the shoulder plane for trimming the shoulders and cheeks to fit.

[Mike Siemsen]

I use a sharp wide chisel. I can stick it right in the layout lines and clean them right up.

[Paul Cahill]

I like the router plane to flatten and make the tenon coplanar with the stock, and I like the shoulder plane for trimming the shoulders and cheeks to fit.

I agree. From the perspective of only recently advancing to M&Ts, I started out using a rabbet plane, but quickly became frustrated. Derek Cohen's site was very helpful, and I got a LV router plane and small shoulder plane. I am still slow (very slow actually), but am very pleased with the results.

[Chris Griggs]

A strong +1 on the router plane recommendations! Easily one of my favorite tools.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I'd love me some fancy joinery planes to help perfect my joints, but not having those, I've managed to get pretty good with a chisel. Dropping a wide chisel in the knife line (sometimes you need to make a new one) I can quickly take care of the shoulders if they aren't too deep. I often slightly undercut. A wide chisel also helps for paring faces, but that takes a little more finesse. I always try and pick the straightest grained pieces to receive the tenons, that makes things easier.

Good stock prep and good layout helps immensely, just like with dovetailing.

I have to say, what's helped me more than anything with tenons, just as with any joinery, was learning to saw well, and tuning my saws so they performed repeatedly. (reducing the set on my old Disston backsaw made things so much easier) I'm far from a perfect sawyer, but the less fitting you have to do, the quicker and better the job is!

[Joe Scharle]

I prefer to make tenons with a router (mortises too). Before I got a Woodrat I used this jig for years.
Capture the rail or workpiece, between the sled and fence, then push it pass a straight or spiral bit. To make the haunch, I set the bottom of the rail on a 1/4" piece of scrap.
Actually, I use it for routing ends with many bit profiles.

DrawerLock Box (4).jpg

[David Keller NC]

So I have been focusing on woodturning for the last 8 years, but my first love is furniture making. I am wanting to get back into it, and I need to refine all my hand tool skills, as well as add tools to my inventory. One of my greatest needs is something to clean up tenons accurately. I know some people recommend router planes to dial in tenons, but what about a rabbet plane/shoulder plane?

As you've noted from the replies, it depends on what you mean by "perfecting a tenon". If you're talking about the shoulders, then you can use a lot of different tools. The shoulder plane is a dedicated-purpose tool to do this, but so long as you've not over cut your marked lines, then a sharp chisel is easily the fastest way to do this. The reason that I italicized the "not overcut your marked lines" is that this is the most common beginner mistake, and those of that have done this (including me) recognize that in this situation you're hosed - even with a shoulder plane, it's quite difficult to get the two long shoulders coplanar and the same lengtth.

If you're speaking of perfecting the cheeks of a tenon, then a different tool is called for - a shoulder plane won't help. The difficulty here is that once you've cut all 4 planes of the cheeks, there is no line to cut to. This is where a router plane shines - because the registration surface is composed of the bench and the sides of the rail, it doesn't matter whether the tenon cheeks were cut square to the workpiece, nor do you a need a line to cut to.

There is a work procedure, however, that allows dressing the wide cheek faces by using a rabbet block plane or a wide chisel. What you must do is saw the wide cheeks down to the shoulder line, then cut the shoulders, but don't cut the narrow cheeks (the part that makes the tenon less wide than the workpiece). That leaves the original marked line that defines the tenon thickness, and you can then correct a misalignment of the tenon cheek's faces by paring across the cheeks down to the line on either side of the rail. After the tenon cheeks are coplanar and square to the rail sides, you can then cut the narrow sides to establish the tenon side shoulders.

[Matt Hutchinson]

David - I suppose I should clarify. I did, in fact, mean to ask about y'all's preferences when truing up both the cheeks and the shoulders.

Thanks all for the specific responses. Up to this point I have been machining all my mortises and tenons, and I have been less than pleased with the tenons. They are quite problematic because any slight variation in a sled or the thickness of the material results in an improperly fitting joint. I really love working with hand tools, and I want them to be the foundation for my future woodworking endeavors. I simply haven't taken the time to work on the necessary techniques. Soon I will be needing to make a better workbench too, but that's another ball game.

Looks like I may start with a router plane in conjunction with my chisels.

Hutch

[Derek Cohen]

Hi Matt

Router plane for the cheeks ...

... and shoulder plane for the shoulders.

Lots of tips in this tutorial: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furnitu...ndMortice.html

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Koepke]

I like a sharp 1-1/4 to 1-1/2" chisel for fitting the cheeks on a big tenon.

A router plane is good for smaller work. It is a bit slower, but can be a bit more accurate.

I often trim shoulders with a small chisel or a shoulder plane.

jtk

[Chris Griggs]

I've always had a hard time trimming cheeks with a chisel - perhaps because my biggest chisel is only 1". That's one of the reasons I've always been so in love with the router plane - it in situation after situation it does what I struggle to do consistently when using chisels.

For shoulders, on the other hand, I really like a chisel. Even if I had a shoulder plane I don't think I'd use it on tenon shoulders, as I like to undercut the shoulder with a chisel anyway. Also by making a deep mark and a v notch before sawing the shoulder you end up with a great reference edge to pair off of.

[Jim Koepke]

I've always had a hard time trimming cheeks with a chisel - perhaps because my biggest chisel is only 1".

Unless it was a small tenon or a little bump to remove, I wouldn't try tuning a tenon with this small of a chisel.

The beauty of a large chisel is how the back can be registered on the cheek to take whisper thin shavings from the high spots. Sometimes my chisel is turned more in an arc than pushing straight forward on a tenon cheek.

jtk

[Jim Neeley]

What size do you use, Jim? If you were doing a Roubo leg, how big would you go?