Templates are one of the Holy Grails of woodworking. If you desire repeatability and consistency, templates (along with jigs in other applications) are the best way to go. They’re easy to make, reduce what (without there existence) would be a lengthy, and possible complex process to a simpler, shorter process, and can be made from a variety of readily available, inexpensive materials. They’re also a great substitute for hand-skills and tools that have not yet been acquired.

In my work, templates are used for two purposes; the first I call a tracing-template, is for transferring or laying out patterns to stock. This purpose may or may not require the template to be temporarily attached to the stock. Guiding-templates are employed to guide the bearing of a flush-trim bit. This operation requires a more robust template that can withstand the stresses of multiple application and removals, while providing a healthy edge to register a flush-trim bearing.

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When I make legs, usually the last step is drilling the holes that will act as mortises for the pegs used to secure mortise and tenons joints. These hole passes through a mortise creating the possibility of tear-out as the drill bit both enters and exits the mortise.

Nice crisp edges!

At first thought, this doesn’t seem like a big deal; there will be a tenon hiding the tear-out and no one will see it. However, if the tear-out is too great it can lead to a loosely fitting peg that may eventually allow the joint to move, let the joint open, exposing an unsightly gap, or later become loose. An easy way to avoid this problem is to use a backer-tenon when drilling the holes.
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Remember when you were young, with hair and no stomach paunch, and your hammer and workbench were made by Fisher-Price? A time when there was no greater pleasure than picking up a hammer and just whaling away for hours, just beating the crap out of something? It was the purest of pleasures, and drove your parents crazy. Man, it was fun. Without a time machine, making pins for your Arts and Crafts inspired furniture is the closest you’ll get to re-living that experience.

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As an admirer of Greene and Greene furniture, I’ve always been interested in the housed tenon-a joint that was used extensively throughout their furniture, and anecdotally, it appears to have been used exclusively by them. Several folks have told me the Greene’s employed this joint because of the strength it added to joints; and others believe it was employed because it all but guaranteed that, if throughout its life a piece of furniture experienced significant wood movement, a gap would not open between legs and rails, splats, spindles, or crests. It’s easy to say that this additional strength and anti-gap insurance are reasonable features given the prices the Greens were charging. But there are too many others craftsman from this era (i.e.: Charles Rolfs, William Price, Elbert Hubbard etc) who in my mind were just as concerned with the quality and strength characteristics of their furniture who did not use the housed tenon. I wonder why?

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Perhaps the most alluring aspects of Arts and Crafts furniture is working with quarter sawn white oak and the unique ray fleck patterns it presents. A particular challenge of featuring the distinctive ray fleck patterns is presented by the leg-a table leg, Morris chair leg, or side board leg-and how to make oak’s ray fleck pattern visible on all four sides.
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The April/May issue of American Woodworker is out! You may notice a framiliar Arts and Crafts bedside table on the cover. Starting on Page 39 is an article I’ve written on building a bedside table. It includes step-by-step instruction on incorporating spindles and panels into your Arts and Crafts furniture, making breadboard tops, and a second article on making four-sided quartersawn legs on a router table. This is a great project for learning how to make many Arts and Crafts elements!

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Through mortise and tenons are a popular style of Arts and Crafts joinery, regularly seen in Morris chairs, sideboards, and various case pieces. In this post I’ll show the version I used in my footstool, which can easily be adapted to the mentioned furniture. As with all of my technique posts, I’ll primarily focus on the process. Mentioning my favorite step-by-step techniques along the way; my hope is that you will choose the step-by-step techniques that make sense for you. The goal of this process is to produce a through mortise and tennon that is tight, and has crisp (i.e.: not rounded over) mortised shoulders.
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