This is a bench I'm building for outside to sit my bonsai trees on, so I'm using white oak and building it using mostly interlocking joinery.
The planks for the top have been edge jointed, glued and face jointed, they're set for finish planing next week.
The stretcher has been jointed flat on all sides and this is where the excitement starts, the outside joints are going to be captured by a through mortise locked with a double dovetail pin.
The design is a modified version of a very early work by George Nakashima.
This is the major modification, in making this 6ft long I needed to add a center support leg, and to capture the leg in the stretcher I will be using a combination of fixed and wedged supports.
Shaping the fixed support.
Mortising for the center support:
This will also allow me to tighten up the center leg without disturbing the outside legs.
I will probably also pin the fixed support.