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Portable Sawmill & Tree Service – Abingdon, VA

Wedged mortise and tenon

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Wedged mortise and tenon

#1

Wedged mortise and tenon

Gil

>I recieved a nice cherry table from a family member this thansgiving. The catch is that some of the wedged MT's have failed over time. I'm not sure why they have, but they have. I disasembled some of the not so visable joints this morning using a drill, hammer and chisel. I need to take two more joints apart which are highly visible. Does anyone have a reccomendation as to how they should be seperated? I would somehow like to remove the wedge, or at lease colapse it before attempting to take it apart. Any ideas?? Doing this in a two bedroom apartment with nosey neighbors, so I need to keep noise to a minimum.

Thanks,

Gil

Re: Wedged mortise and tenon

#2

Re: Wedged mortise and tenon

Christopher Schwarz

>Gil,

It the table is pre-WWII the joints could likely be hide glue. You can loosen that with moisture and heat. I've had good luck with a wet rag and a steam iron. That could loosen things up enough to pry the wedges out. It also could damage the finish, FYI.

There are other strategies I haven't tried that others can chime in with.

Chris

Re: Wedged mortise and tenon

#3

Re: Wedged mortise and tenon

Gil

>Based on the other joints it appears they are put together with tite-bond or some other yellow glue...

Re: Wedged mortise and tenon

#4

Re: Wedged mortise and tenon

thomd

>The best thing is not to take apart joints that are still sound. There are several types of wedged joints, ones that are wider than entry mortice and wedge out to a dovetail shape, others just tighten the joint. The later may simply hammer appart. The type that expand into the wedge shaped mortise if they are tight, will probably result in serious destruction. Alcohol will also disolve hyde glue. Sometimes you might be better off to try to penetrate the joint with CA glue to reglue it.

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