Eli,

Some of the students in this class are less experienced than others. They may not understand the joinery being used or why. They may think why not grab the old router or festool and make a loose tenon joint. Here are what I think the reasons are, if I am incorrect please correct me. I do not want to sound like a know-it-all. I certainly am not at the level of craftsmen either Tommy or you. But I think we would like to know why certain things are being done to help further our education down this journey of the “Crazy Leg Table” project. For our next project, we will all understand why many of the basic joinery is be completed the why it is and the temptation of grabbing the router or festool will not be there.

My understanding of tenon design of using haunches and twin tenons for any tenon over five inches long is as follows:

The haunches are used to help the apron from twisting over time and the twin tenons over fine inches will tend prevent joint failure due to wood movement over the span. In addition there is more glue surface for the joint.

The double tenon on the divider is used to increase glue surface on long grain to long grain surfaces.

Chuck

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