>Perusing the last issue of PWW, the titebond ad caught my eye (not sure if the same ad is in other mags as well) - this is one with a Windosr chairmaker working on a chair in progress... Looks like he is taking a chisel and mallet to the top of a spindle where it attaches to the arm... I know these pics are staged, and I'm not a Windsor chairmaker, but this pic struck me as odd... I can't ever recall where this technique would be used. Is there any process where this would be actually be done, or is this just poor use of the props?
I know, I've got too much time on my hands if I'm looking at the ads that closely :)
>Would you do that with a chisel? I would have thought you would saw a kerf in the tenon and then use a mallet to insert the wedge...that's why I'm asking the question...would you really take a chisel to the end of the tenon after it was inserted in the arm? As I said I'm no windsor chairmaker...
>Probably doesn't mater which method one uses as long as: 1) One prepares the wedges differently; 2)one doesn't try to split out a tenon in stock that wasn't riven or otherwise equiped with imaculate grain.
On thing to keep in ming about windsor joinery is that the tenons fit very tightly often in tapered holes with tapered tenons. If you saw down into that you can undermine the fit on the underside of the tenon because it's difficult to get a perfect wedge fit deep in the tenon and one might have an unfilled slot. With the splitting it means the bottom is solid and the top is flaired, might be better as well as very fast.
>Funny, I've seen that ad before and what struck me was not the chisel method (which as Dave says works fine), but the fact that he appears to be driving it with the grain rather than against. That's a definite no-no. A staged photo does still get noticed by us nutty chairmakers...