Furniture Design: Tenon Meets Mortise

This weeks 'field trip' takes us to Economy Lumber in Oakland, just a short jog away from our place at the Cotton Mill. There is hardware store there- but this one actually seems to have tools in it. A look around here makes one realize how small a Home Depot would be if you got rid of all the windows and lighting fixtures and dishwashers- you know all the prefab sh*t that people who actually want hardware almost never need.



We were looking for some specialty cuts- furniture sized pieces are not standard lumber cuts- usually the wood you can find is sized for decking it seems. We venture out into the piles and piles of wood to find something like a 3x3 (which in lumber actually means 2 1/2x 2 1/2) in a type of wood commonly used in furniture. The closest we could find was some 3x6s- a rare cut in lumber- in Douglas Fir, and they rip them in half for us lengthwise, for a fee. These will be the leg stock for the futon.



After some fun trying to tie a 4'x8' sheet of chip board to the roof of Jake's car with lousy twine in the rain, we returned to the Studio/Apartment and I began focusing on skill-building.

I want the futon to be held together with mortise and tenon joints, which hold only with glue, so that there won't be just a ton of screw-heads tarnishing the appearance. Of course, I've never made a mortise and tenon joint before so today was the time to give it a try. Yes, this boy, born and raised on power tools, bought himself his very first set of chisels.



I'm actually pretty pleased with how well it came out. Unfortunately the mortise is all ragged, and it didn't close all the way, but Martin gave me some pointers on technique. So I'll do some more tomorrow to continue practicing. I glued up the joint as well, to learn a bit about tolerances in these kind of joints.



I know four months of focus isn't enough time to master the art of woodworking. I know by the time a craftsman can be called a master he has made thousands of mortise and tenon joints. But I'm going to push myself to see what I can accomplish. In this time I hope to finish the Futon, a Dining Table, a Kitchen Island, and a Bed Frame, all in finish quality. At the end, I may ask Martin to grade my work- should be fun.