Are parallel edges necessary?

[James Pallas]

When gluing up panels is it necessary to parallel all of the glued edges? When working with hand tools it would seem to be counter productive to rips all tapers instead of squaring the edge do the glue up and then square and parallel the whole panel. I have seen several pieces now that were done in this fashion.
Jim

[Brian Holcombe]

Not really, but I do like my glue lines to be on center or proportioned.

[Mel Fulks]

If it's not going to be painted I think they look better parallel. The modern eye is picky. Once an employer who had always been most complimentary of my panel matching ,told me they all looked great except for one,and pointed to one "joint".A
straight natural line and slight color change in a SINGLE BOARD. The very straightness of the line made him perceive a nonexisting joint. I think you have to look for flow more than flaws.

[Mike Allen1010]

Jim, yours is a good, practical neander question; if you rip with TS/ bandsaw, getting parallel edges prior to glue up is no big deal, but if you rip by handsaw could add up to some serious work, especially with dense woods. IMHO, like most things, more of a matter of work style preference, rather than "right or wrong". I try to focus on tight/invisible glue lines- parallel or not.

I think it's worth checking parallelism before glue up, especially if it's several narrow boards. If it's more than about 1/4" out of parallel, I fix it before glue up, otherwise I leave it and just square the panel after glue up. If you don't check for parallelism before GU, watch out for rough cutting the length too close to final dimensions. In wider panels (like table tops), a little bit of out of parallel multiplied over several boards could mean you need several extra inch of length in individual boards to yield a square, parallel panel of the desired dimensions (don't ask how I know that)

Just my 2 cents. I know you asked about GU panels, but in general when I'm lax about getting boards 6 way square (which includes parallel edges), is usually about the time joints don't fit and carcasses end up out of square. It's way easier for me to be able to safely assume all like furniture parts have identical dimensions, than to have to individually fit each component to those adjoining it, but that's just my preference.

Cheers, Mike

[Allan Speers]

This is much like asking if hand-cut dovetails look better or worse than machine-cut.

Personally, I prefer the look of precision. (in both DT's and glued panels.) - I just wish I could achieve this by hand! I need more practice.

[Frank Drew]

James,

How much out of parallel are you talking about? 1/4" over 4', or an inch or two over 4'?

[Leo Passant]

The backboards of chests of drawers, bureaus and high dressers are often a bit skew-whiff.

dresser_backboards_01a.jpg

[Harold Burrell]

The backboards of chests of drawers, bureaus and high dressers are often a bit skew-whiff.

dresser_backboards_01a.jpg

Did you make this?

[Paul Saffold]

Boards maybe, it depends on their alignment, universes yes...or so I'm told.

[James Pallas]

I have seen this a few times and thought about it. Those that worked by hand had a need for speed as we often do. I don't think that long rips were anymore a favorite than they are today. How often do we read here "I planed one edge then used my band saw for the other edge". There would be no need to parallel for veneer work for example. Seeing it just made me wonder about it. I thought maybe some of the historians may have an answer for it.
Jim

[Leo Passant]

No. It is a couple of hundred years old.

[Robert Engel]

Sorry, it maybe worth a lot of money, but my initial impression is with all the time already into the piece they couldn't rip some parallel boards?
Maybe that was the way they did it in their area, but I've seen other hutches of he era done better.

[Brian Holcombe]

That's due to thriftiness.

[Patrick Bernardo]

Most of you guys could answer this better than I could, but it does seem to me that it's at least possible that the boards on that hutch split into those shapes while on the hutch. If you look at it, you can see that there are some wide board-like cuts, and the splits run through those boards. On the top left you can see a split developing.

[Brian Holcombe]

The second one from the right looks like a split, but the others are too straight to be splits (IMO).