Biscuits or Dowels needed?

[Craig Behnke]

I'm going to make an end grain butcher block in the pattern seen in the picture below. Will I need to biscuit or dowel the rows together?

When I made the edge grain board pictured below I just did a basic glue up with no other joinery. Since then, I have read that some people use biscuits or dowels that penetrate through the stripping to hold the rows together because the thin strip separating the rows (see the black arrow) is a weak point that compromises the strength.

Is it a pretty safe bet that a basic glue up is just fine and the extra joining is overkill?

The block will be hard maple and walnut, with walnut strips about 3/32 thick in between the rows. The block will be 12 x 18 x 2.25.

It will be a wedding gift for a friend, so I want it to last at least as long as the average marriage, about 3.6 years (joke, I'd like it to last a lifetime).

Input appreciated. Thanks.

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[Sam Murdoch]

I vote - no extra joinery! Your assembly won't fail at the strip anymore or less than without. In fact the strip eliminates a whole lot of end grain to end grain gluing that would result without the strip. Don't know what glue you are using but if it hasn't failed you yet it won't on this project. Can you bust up the one in the photo (or a cousin) and see how the joints fail? That would certainly be informative.

[Daniel Rode]

I'm no expert but for edge jointing I use biscuits just to help with alignment during glue up. In general, I only use biscuits or dowels when I have to. IMO, they do not add any strength to edge joints. A good caul and/or careful clamping works better for alignment most times.

-- my $0.02