Summary: Learn the different types of wood joints and the different ways to join wood, learn how to join wood, mitre joints, butt joints, mortise and tenon joints, scarf joints, dovetail joints and halving Joints.
Butt joints are the simplest and weakest form of joint where one section of wood is butted head-on to another.
Mitring is a useful technique for joining sections of wood as it makes a neater joint than a straight butt joint. It is particularly useful when it comes to running skirting boards, dados, or worktops around a corner.
One member has a recess or cavity cut into it, which interlocks with a matching peg on the other member to form a joint, as used in a mortise lock on doors. The part with the hole is called the mortise, and the male part the tenon. Fixed with glue, pins or simply wedged.
A stronger joint than a butt joint, a scarf joint is often used when the materials being joined are not long enough or when an invisible glue line is required. To form the joint, cut both members to a fine tapered point, using an angle of between 1:8 and 1:10.
Formation: A series of pins cut into one half of the joint interlock with a series of recesses cut into the other half.
A halving joint is simply where one piece of wood crosses over another. Half the thickness of the timber is removed from each piece so that they interlock to form a flush joint. There are various ways of interlocking the sections: