What is a Cope and Stick Router Bit Set?

[Frank Pellow]

In two very different articles that I was reading today, I came upon the term "cope and stick router bit set" and I have no idea what it means. I turned to four different catalogues with router bits for information (Freud, Lee Valley, Rockler, and Grizzly) but found nothing.

Having found nothing, I am wondering if perhaps this is some class of bit and there are several more specific names used in the catalogues.

I would appreciate it if someone could educate me.

[Joe Scarfo]

I'm no expert here, but I do believe it's inter changeable w/ rail and stile bits.

I know a cabinet maker who referred to door making bits as cope and stick...

I'll keep an eye out here to see if I'm right...

Ciao
Joe in Green Bay

[Dev Emch]

These are terms pulled from the glory days of serious woodworking. The term stick refers to the blank fed into a moulder and sticking an edge is the moulding cut or cut that is inline with the grain. The term cope refers to the end grain cut usually done by a tenoner. For example, my tenoner has five motors. Two motors cut the tenon and two more cope the profile. Often, this cut is an end grain cut that reaches under the cheek of the tenon to form an opposite but equal profile to the stick profile. These two motors spining these cutters are known as the copeing heads and they spin the cope cutters.

Recently, the router table has taken over this task esp. in regard to hobbyists building frame and rail structures for cabinet doors or furniture. The router bit sets that cut the profile for both the long grain cut and the end grain cut are known as cope and stick sets. Incidently, so are the shaper cutter and tenoner sets used to do the same task on these machines.

So as you can see, these are most likely bits you are already familar with. You just didnt know the obsure name.

The enclosed engraving is one of my tenoner. Except mine is a 1968 type 2 model 125 and this is an earlier type 1.

[Mark Singer]

Cope is when you put up with someone or something..
Stick is what you would like to hit them with..

[Frank Pellow]

Thanks Joe and Dev (and no thanks Mark )

Dev, I am tempted to get a machine like the one you showed, but I expect that it is more likely that I will end up with a router table like:

Router Table.JPG

and some bits like:

router bits.JPG

[Jim Dunn]

Frank you should consider the floor of you shop before you get a machine like Dave's. It might crunch the concrete where it sets

[Frank Pellow]

Frank you should consider the floor of you shop before you get a machine like Dave's. It might crunch the concrete where it sets

Good point Jim (even though my floor has no concrete).

So the main reason that I will not get a machine like your's Dev, is not cost , and it is not space , but it is the fact that my floor could not handle the load.

[Richard Wolf]

Frank, Rail and stile or stick and cope bits are used to make raised panel and flat panel doors and panels. At first glance they may look a little confussing but after setting them up they work very well. Keep in mind you will also need a rasied panel cutter to go with the rail and stile bits and the three bits often come in a set. I like raised panel cutters that also have a back cutter included to reduce the panel edge to 1/4".

Richard

[Charles McCracken]

Rail and Stile refer to the door components themselves and are generally used to name the bit set. Cope and stick (or cope and profile) refer to the cuts made and are used to name the individual bits.

The bit sets you pictured will produce rail and stile doors (by making cope and stick cuts) but they cannot be reshimmed after sharpening. Each time you have them sharpened the fit of the joint produced will suffer more and more. There are two piece rail and stile sets available (like the Freud 99-260) that have shims between the cutters so they can be adjusted after each sharpening.

Charles M
Freud America, Inc.

[Frank Pellow]

Richard and Charles, thanks for the further information.

Only quite recently did I get a decent router. I am using it quite a bit these days, but I still have a lot to learn. Heck, I don't even have a router table (yet?).

[Jim Becker]

Cope and stick goes beyond just rails and stiles...it's also what gets used for things like the frames that hold glass in multi-pane windows, ets. But the simplest "cope and stick" cutter you have is your table saw!! It's just a somewhat plain profile... (tongue and groove counts as cope and stick)

[Mark Singer]

Cope is when you put up with someone or something..
Stick is what you would like to hit them with..

I hate to admit it, but.....I may have had another one wrong

[Frank Pellow]

Cope and stick goes beyond just rails and stiles...it's also what gets used for things like the frames that hold glass in multi-pane windows, ets. But the simplest "cope and stick" cutter you have is your table saw!! It's just a somewhat plain profile... (tongue and groove counts as cope and stick)

OK Jim, this puts many bits into the "cope and stick" category as I first suspected. That makes more sense to me than simply alternative terms for "rail and stile" type bits, because one of the contexts where I encountered the term yesterday was when reading about window frames.

[Rob Blaustein]

But the simplest "cope and stick" cutter you have is your table saw!! It's just a somewhat plain profile... (tongue and groove counts as cope and stick)

So what is the reason people use fancier profiles (router bits vs simple tongue and groove) for rails and stiles in a non-raised panel setting? Is it because of more gluing surface, or simply looks (though the only part you see is that joint when viewed from above). Is it a sign of "fancier" joinery or workmanship, akin to using dovetails vs other joinery (I realize there are distinct structural advantages to using dovetails too...)?

[David Fried]

Frank,

I realize your question has already been answered but I was at woodworking-magazine.com and wanted to try out their Interactive Woodworking Terms Glossary. Here is what it came up with.

Cope-&-stick joint (n)
A good joint for making small- and medium-sized doors. Essentially it’s a tongue-and-groove joint with built-in moulding, which are a nice touch to this reasonably strong joint.
copestick.jpg

Appears to be a decent glossary!

Dave Fried