A machine will more readily move rather than cut a piece wood, given the chance. If you are holding the piece of wood with your hand, the hand may go with the wood, maybe to the cutting blade.  

Compare the action of a coarse rasp with a machine. Consider the work piece just sitting on the bench top, without a gripping or movement-blocking device. As you push the rasp on the wood, it will push the piece of wood. Alternatively, if you clamp or block the movement of the wood, the rasp will cut it as you want. If you grip the wood only with your hands anywhere in the pathway of the rasp, you may rasp your skin, even seriously. 

Mentally transfer the situation to a machine of vastly higher power and speed than rasping. If you allow the machine cutter the opportunity to push the wood without its position and movement physically governed, there is a very good chance the machine cutter will take the opportunity to push and/or throw the wood rather than cut it. The speed and power of this is more than you can avoid.

The wood may be thrown at you. Probably worse is if your hand is griping or riding the wood. The sudden throw or push of the wood can take your hand with it and might push or pull your hand right into the blade! This is all likely to be far faster than you can react to save your hand.

Consider some examples. Without a side fence or cross-cut fence, the table saw blade may through the wood rather than continuously cut it. An cutoff piece within the confine of a blade and fence is easily thrown by the blade. The thrown wood or the grabbed wood with your hand on it can be very serious. 

A drill press, especially with a large diameter bit, may grab and throw the wood piece in a spin as it gets into the cut. Attempting to hold the wood only with your hand may bring the hand into the blade faster than you can avoid.  

Router tables can do a number of dangerous things. The blade is rotating counterclockwise from your view. Without a fence and/or other blockers in the appropriate place(s), and without appropriate direction of feeding the wood, the blade edge can snatch the wood amazingly fast. This is particularly true of large diameter blades cutting deeply. The hand holding it may go to the cutting blade. 

Bandsaws are less likely wood throwers because the cutters are pushing the wood down onto the table, and so they cut it instead. One danger is lifting the wood by holding it off the table as you put it into the blade, such as for a curved cut. Maybe it can be done (and you can find famous examples) but I would never to it.

We could go on with many other machine throwing and hand-pulling examples.

The key is to understand that almost any machine-moving blade is much faster and more powerful than you! It will likely take its opportunity to throw, push, or pull and it does not matter what is in the way – including any part of you. 

Understand that this is not a “step-by-step” or “cover-it-all” safety instruction. It is a useful starting point to understand how woodworking machinery can create many of its dangerous situations. 

It is one part of learning safety. We must understand much more, read, and prepare before working with machinery. Then plan, and only then do the work. 

Stay safe!

At this point, I switch from the sharpening station to my scraper set up that I have described in a recent previous post. That rig has been working for around 40 years and still going strong. 

It pays off to first use your burnisher (you can read about what I use from a few posts ago) to push and stroke the flat side of the scraper. Keep the edge as close to flat as you can, without being totally in contact of the full width. It is really only touching near the edge. Go back and forth several times with moderate pressure. 

Finally, it is time to burnish the edge you will use for scraping. As seen in the photo below, the scraper is securely clamped with just a short amount exposed. The burnisher is pushed and/or pulled the full length of the edge with moderate pressure. 

I find it very helpful to move across some of the length of the burnisher as I push or pull it. I find this creates the scraper’s cutting edge better. 

It is important to set the angle and keep it consistent throughout the stroke. But at what angle? I have changed over time, back and forth, and realize there are many good choices. 

I think about 5° is a good starting practice, and is what I generally prefer now. Note that as you go more steep, the scraper must be held and worked at a stepper angle to cut the wood. That starts to reduce your scraping ease and hand power. 15° is the maximum practical angle. 10° is overall better. I have seen as little as 1-2° recommended.

I set my angle at the beginning with my Wixey angle gauge. The real key is to be consistent throughout the burnishing stroke. This will make the scraper yield a consistent cutting effect for the width of the scraper as you work.

After using the scraper for a while, you can resharpen it by just redoing the final steps (i.e., what is in this post). No need to redo the sharpening stone work. Use the burnisher to flatten the curled edge by compressing against the flat side of the tool. The burnisher is held just a trace less than fully flat against the flat side of the scraper.

Then burnish the edge as you did before. You can even readjust the angle. After about three times, redo the whole routine again. It will be easier than at the start. 

I hope this has been useful to support, alter, or even begin your work with this very handy tool – the cabinet scraper. It is not a mysterious or difficult tool to prepare and use! Happy woodworking! 

We well start from the beginning. 

The edge is made flat, straight, and very smooth at 90°. This can be filed first, though I generally find this unnecessary because all can be readily done with sharpening stones. If you prefer, use a smooth mill file and a piece of wood to hold it square to the scraper edge. 

I start with my 325/45µ DMT diamond stone, using a simple block of wood to keep the scraper edge square to the stone while consistently moving it to different spaces on the stone as you scrape it. 

I do the same next on the 1200/9µ diamond face. Then I finish on the next finer step that I have available: the 8000/~2µ Kuromaku stone. To stop at 1200 is not bad but there is not much extra work to finish finer. Even 4000 is pretty good if that is what you have available. 

Next, the same general process is done to the flat face. Here, however, there is no need to take forever doing the whole surface. Just a short width – say 1/8” or so – needs to be treated to meet with the edge.

The easiest way to do this is the same general method developed by the late master David Charlesworth for the general sharpening step of the back of a blade. He used a thin strip – I like a .020” strip of plastic – under the blade on one side of the stone, while the other side the blade only contacts the stone with a very narrow width. For scrapers, I again use a simple block of wood to keep the edge contacting the stone flat and straight. Thus, only the most outer small fraction of an inch gets sharpened, and it is much less work.

Just like the edge work up, I go through 325, 1200, and 8000. I usually like to use grippy, waterproof gloves for this work on the wetted stones. 

I find that a little bit of back-and-forth between the edge and the side faces cleans things up nice and neat. And now you are done with the hard work!

Next, we will do the burnishing work.

Now let us consider tuning up the hand scraper. Despite what you may have heard, read, or viewed, this is not a difficult task. What makes some demonstrations and discussions confusing is not presenting a simple understanding of exactly what you need to do with the scraper steel. Most demos do not clearly state what the actual task is for each step.

In the next post I will show and discuss the actual tasks being done. In this post, I will state what is done to the scraper metal at each stage. 

First, the sides and the skinny edge must be made flat and smooth. You do this because the steel is not manufactured smooth enough. That is ok. They should also be approximately square to each other. The surfaces should be honed to at least 1000 stone grit. Better is about 4000, even more. 

Second, compression should be applied to the side faces, just near the edges. Push hard on the steel repeatedly. 

Third, the edge itself should be burnished at an angle – to create the hook which is used to cut wood – scraping.  

That’s it. Done. There are variations and alternatives to achieve each step. These steps are not fully repeated for every sharpening. Every three or so sharpenings, however, require going back to some of the earlier steps. 

Coming up, I will show how I do it. There are other equally good methods and helper jigs to achieve the same principles.  

When you see – and understand – what is going on, you can alter the methods and probably come up with some of your own.   

Now things get more tricky. If you have been avoiding angled joints, or maybe you tried and messed up a few (hey, I think that is everyone who has tried them) I want to put them in general categories with different levels of potential difficulty.

This is not to show detailed, step-by-step processes. Rather, I just want state the general ideas from which you can develop your specific methods. 

So let’s start with the easy group. This is where the joint angle goes across the width of one or both pieces. The length of the piece is simply cut at an angle, ideally on an accurate table saw crosscut jig. 

The photos below show two examples. One is a piece with a 90° edge matched with a piece with an angled edge. The other is a pair of pieces that each have an angled edge.

No problem. These can go directly to your dowel jig, Domino, or mortising jig. Plan the position and length of the holes or mortises. They are cut at 90° to the angled edge of each piece.

Now it gets harder. The angle is at the edge of the thickness of one or both pieces, placed at the end of the length of the piece(s).

The photo at the top of this post shows the angled edge of each of two pieces. The angled piece can be joined to another angled edge or simply to a flat edge.  

The first photo below shows a pair of angled end-grain edges across the flat width of each piece. 

The next photo below is to imitate a chair joint. (To make the photo of the unassembled pieces easier, I placed the “chair” upside down.) The angled-end piece, at 2°, meets the long grain of the “chair leg”.

These are examples of where things get trickier to make. Why? Because we have to join the angled edge to a flat surface. The flat surface can simply be square to the board as in the two photos below, or can be an angled flat surface of the other piece. The joint cutter must be at the angle of the angled piece(s).

For this job, there are many options. Domino can work well, though there must be good placement and grip of the machine. Any angle can be set. DowelMax makes a doweling jig, though it works at only 45°, which will build a box or similar items. The Leigh FMT and Woodpecker MultiRouter (both are expensive, as are Dominos) can do a really nice job. I suggest making a pair of mortises and a free tenon for an easier job. The Leigh FMT works well for me for this task. It is precise and reliable. The PantoRouter looks like it also could certainly do the job. 

JessEm has a Doweling Jig Workstation. I have not used it but I was not impressed by what I saw online, along with the related (?) Pocket Mill Pro. There is also many other machines that can do this task, many high priced, which I am not familiar with.    

What about angling a conventional drill press? Yea, maybe, but getting perfect, steady angles that give good joint matchup is difficult. Not my choice. I also suppose something could be worked out with a benchtop mortiser, but I have never been a fan or owned one of those. 

With all of this, remember that you are cutting square to the joint surface of the angled piece(s) and the square-edge of the other part of the joint if that is how it is set up. 

With good equipment and planing, we can reliably make these joints!

Now, there is one more problem. Though I have done it in building, I have to say it is difficult. This is when a part of the joint is curved AND has an angled edge. With a tenon, or a mortise and a loose tenon, it meets a flat surface. The photo below shows an example. 

Sometimes, this can be done when the wood has not yet been curved on its main surface, but not always. Sometimes handwork is the best and fastest way. It does take careful work!

Well, we’ve done it! We have covered a full range of joinery that I have labelled as “end to side-edge joinery.” Again, the idea of all of this is to organize the workable, practical systems and tools that allow you to choose how you can comfortably and effectively guide your woodwork. I think that the age of the traditional mortise and tenon is largely over for most woodworkers.

I hope it helps!

Is this a strong joint? No. Useful? Yes. It is helpful where connection is otherwise awkward and high strength is not needed. 

It does not make the show for looks either. Yet sometimes that is no factor at all because it lives unseen.

A veneer table top is a nice example. Screw the top to the side braces below. Unless the table is dragged around with heavy weight on it, and as long as the veneer is bound to a largely unchangeable base like MDF, it will be fine. If the table top is regular, jointed wood, it can be screwed at central points on the sides, or on one side, while the remainder has, for example, the slotted L joints that allow seasonal movement. 

It is really just another example of keeping your arsenal in mind. Me? Yea, I screwed in place one spot of a small table top with two long holes and screws. Well, it worked, but if you get underneath the table, you can find my sloppy work. Sure, the owner and no one else will care or probably ever see it. But that was a lousy part of an otherwise nicely made table. Why? Because it did not step back and review my options, including what sat on a shelf a few feet away from me.

This is the key to this series of posts: Know, understand, and consider your viable building and joint options to make the project as well as you really want to, with the most viable and practical construction options.   

I find the best tool for the kind of screw joint covered here is the Kreg. It allows the slanted hole to be drilled accurately and steadily. The screw is also easy to drive in. It is too easy to go wrong without this help.

This post shows the simple version that covers my needs. Kreg has much more elaborate models. I am also showing the small #7 1-1/4” finely threaded screw. Much thicker, longer, and coarsely threaded screw systems are available. I still do not consider these a very strong joint but, again, it is a very nifty system to meet the strength and looks needs for the situation. 

Well, there is only one more topic – a tricky one –  to cover the “end to side-edge joinery” in this long series. That is: ANGLES! Various sorts – some easy, some tricky. Coming next. 

The biscuit joiner just slightly makes the list of techniques for edge to side-edge joinery. It is not a strong or deep joint but it is easy to do. It does have a useful role.

A machine for this can cost less than a $100 if you dare, $250 for a good DeWalt, or a thousand or two for Lamello exotics. I have had a DeWalt for many years without failure. It is handy to have the dust collection attachment. Now, niftier than my old DeWalt is their brushless, cordless version.

Wood biscuits that range in size from small to large (#0, #10, and #20) cover all work for me. The biscuits are only 5/32” thick. They fit snugly into the slots. I have never tried the plastic versions. 

I have used biscuits for light weight, small, thin shelves and side pieces. I would not rely on them for frame strength or any other real strength issue. 

The handiest role for biscuits is edge-to-edge joinery. That is, joining flat boards together to make a bigger flat board. Once you have flattened the pieces to thickness and planed the edges to produce the joints, it is invaluable to keep the thicknesses perfectly aligned. This saves you from a lot of unpleasant planing! 

So, for the end to side-edge joinery that I am discussing in this series of posts, biscuits are not a core item. Still, the biscuit joiner is certainly worth having in the shop for most woodworkers.

Next: we’ll discuss screws. What you say? Screws for real woodworking? Yes, they have a role!

This is a short post to summarize the glue joint distribution of dowel joinery that was discussed in detail in the last post and with excellent commentary from readers. 

Dowel joinery, properly done with good dowel layout and distribution is certainly strong enough. This has been well shown online, notably by DowelMax testing. Some, certainly not all, of the other testing shown online is invalid in my opinion.

Realistically, it is the portion of the joint where the attachment pieces (dowels or tenons) go across the grain of one of the two main components of the build where there is the potential for breaking apart. Yet this does not lead to broken joints if the sizing is properly done.

Dowel joinery creates different cross-grain conflict than mortise-and-tenon joinery. Some of the dowel meets the cross-grain of the built wood, but some of the dowel meets the end grain of the built wood. This makes it seem weaker, especially over time. However, the overall result still fares very well.

Dowel style – parallel or curled groves – probably matters little if at all.

The main credits for dowel joinery, in my view, are: 1) Decades of dowel joints that I built have never failed. There is plenty of building where I have not used them. Probably because I do not fully trust them in some situations.  2) Valid mechanical testing shows that dowel joinery meets or exceeds mortise and tenon joinery. 

So, after thinking through dowel joinery over and over, in numerous ways, it just cannot impress me. However, it works! Shown and proved. So I use it. Not always, but often.  

Next: Other ways to join wood. We are building to a summary of practical, convenient joinery to build things with. We’re getting there.