Dowel joinery. It takes little equipment. Even beginners can do it with care. Yet among many woodworkers, it just does not get the states it deserves. Let’s consider.

I learned the principle and technique mainly from pages 130 – 140 of The Fine Art of Cabinet Making, by James Krenov, published in 1977 and read by me just several years later. I had Tage Frid’s book Tage Frid Teaches Woodworking first and thought that explained dowel joinery. Despite lots of other great instruction by Frid, the dowel procedures were no match to Krenov’s book.  

I highly recommend reading the late, great Krenov’s work in that book, and his other four books. I will discuss that in upcoming posts. 

In the photo below, see the collection of remaining jigs for doweling that are directly based on Krenov’s writing. I used these for many years. They worked well. Now I usually use factory made jigs that make the job easier and faster.

There are two main issues with dowel joinery. First, as with almost all joinery, is strength. Bottom line: Yes, made well, they are plenty strong, including compared with mortise and tenon, and with Domino. The best strength assessment based on mechanical destruction that I have seen online is done by the DowelMax man. Find it at dowelmax.com

The second big issue is accuracy. Drilling the holes is easy but the sets of holes on the boards being joined must be placed correctly. In other words, the two groups of holes must align together exactly to allow the boards to join exactly where you want them. Unlike tenons and Dominos, you cannot slice away bits of dowels to allow the boards to shift. Well, you actually can do this a little with dowels but strength is reduced quickly.

I like the JessEm jig (above) – very straight forward – and the Woodpeckers jig (below) – allows more dowel placement variation and length alignment. DowelMax jigs look great and have some nice placement and angle options. I have not used them but they have great reviews.

So, now we have covered three winning joinery systems which are convenient, strong, and make great woodworking: 

Pair of mortises with free tenon

Domino

Dowel joinery 

Upcoming: More dowel joint strength discussion, angled joints, biscuits, and screws. They all belong in the shop.

Before we get to dowel joinery and angled joinery, let’s briefly cover some more options for joining with a pair of mortises and a loose tenon.

I mentioned the Multi-Router. It has been around for a long time and now done by Woodpecker. Then there is the PantoRouter, designed by a very clever engineer prolifically online. I have not used either of these. Their prices are large but they probably are great. 

Another remarkable tool is the Leigh FMT. (Photo above.) This makes actual mortise AND tenons. It has precise adjustments for both parts, and a fairly wide range of joint sizes. (Why, I do not know, but I have one, having bought it just days before meeting up with a major brain hemorrhage. See the July 7, 2005 post.) 

I see little point in using the tool to make tenons because, as I have said, I see little point in directly making tenons on a half of the joint. (Free tenons are the way to work with rare exceptions.) And because there is some fairly tedious adjustment to make the tenon match the easy-to-make mortise, it will 99% just be a mortise maker for me to use once in a while. It is very good at angled joints, including mortise + mortise with a free tenon.

I have never used a Rockler Bead Lock. It makes a row of linked mortises, into which loose tenons are inserted. From seeing some demos online and trying to understand how it functions, it is not something that will join my shop.

The Kreg Mortise Mate uses a powered drill bit like a router bit. It makes mortises that are similar to Domino but not as good. Apparently, it is related to a JessEs system. Again, though I have not used one, I am not impressed with the performances that I have seen online, nor with the overall logic of the system. 

Ok, it is now time to bring in the dowel joint – coming in the next post – and after that, I’ll cover the angled joint. The dowel joint has been fighting for a reputation for many decades. It is often highly underestimated! Even James Krenov was a wide user. Discussion coming up next!  

Progressing in the discussion of mortise and tenon joinery, it is now time to bring in Domino. 

Put simply, it is a way to make a pair of matching mortises into which is placed a manufactured tenon. Properly set up, it gives fast, precise mortising and an accurately fitting tenon. We all know Domino.

I bought a new Domino 500 18 years ago. It can be seen from old posts that I had some difficulty with its accuracy. I had to build in some refinement to make it right. 

But why do I not use the fast, easy, clean Domino for everything where a mortise and tenon is needed?

There are three limitations: 

1) Limited tenon length. The largest single tenon with the Domino 500 is 50mm (2″ long and 8 or 10mm thick). There are plenty of places where I want the greater strength of a tenon joint that goes in further than one inch (50mm tenon).

2) I usually want wider tenons. I can use two or more Domino tenons and that will give the needed joint strength. Still, sometimes I want a single width tenon.

3) The Domino is expense. Currently, the 500 is now about $1350. Sure, it is really worth it, but it may be out of range for some folks.

The Domino 700, more expensive, has a capacity for much longer tenons (some longer than I think I would ever need). That will take care of your big constructions. It does not have the handy smallest versions taken care of by the 500.

For most woodworkers, the Domino 500 is probably the more versatile choice, but look at both if you are going to unload the cash. Bottom line: I still think it is worth it.

So now I have gone through two major suggestion categories:

1. Mortise Master. Low cost, reliable, good range of mortise sizes (and therefore, tenons). More work, dusty. Several alternatives are around.

2. Domino. High cost, reliable, good but limited range of mortises. Convenient work, great dust collection. 

Two other highly versatile machines, which I have no experience with, can also cover your mortise and tenon joinery (along with of other joints): the Woodpeckers Multi-Router and the PantoRouter. 

And here, I’m afraid that I have to say it: the 4000 year old mortise and tenon is largely history. It is rarely, if ever, needed. There are faster, easier, and strong options.

But what, there are two big categories left to discuss:

Dowel joinery

Angled joinery

We’ll get there, and more, in upcoming posts.

Now let us briefly go through some machine options for the classic mortise and tenon. However, the discussion on this post is that we can move on to more practical construction.

For the mortice, the router takes over. The welcomed speed and accuracy make the whole job easier and more accurate. My changes of systems are discussed later.

To make tenons with machines, there are also many systems. A partial list: bandsaw, table saw setups, and supported router. Over the years, I moved to a routine: bandsaw for the tenon thickness and width, and table saw 90° pushes for the shoulders. I finished as needed with chisels to refinement the shoulders. Finally, small hand plane work refined the tenon thickness as needed.

Nowadays, with rare exceptions, I do not make “pre-attached” tenons anymore. Really, why bother? Just make two mortises. Then, easily make a free tenon that will neatly fit into both. (I will get to the issue of angled joints in an upcoming post.) 

Let’s get past the strength issue regarding this. The free tenon first goes into a mortise with the same grain direction. Properly fitted, that is every bit as strong as a traditional tenon.  

So, the router takes over the “double” mortise production but there must be excellent alignment and safety. Eventually, I shop-made a good jig that lasted several years. It was better than commercial guides that I previously used. Still, I wanted more convenience and versatility.

Enter the Mortise Master – the primary rig that I use for this purpose now. I wrote about this in an 8/3/25 post, having gotten it a few years before. (Photos: at the top of this page and below.) It is based on an intuitive setup system that gives consistent accuracy. Like most systems, dust collection is absent.

The tenon material is made with the thickness planer and table saw. Thickness is refined with quick hand plane work. I often round the edges with either a mini curved-blade plane or router table set up.

So, here is the point to which I have discussed so far: A pair of mortises done with a router set-up, and then a free tenon. But there are lots more options available to make end to side-edge joinery.  

More posts to come in this series. The goal: to help you organize and choose among the many options available to make these joints.