Hello,

I am building some small bedside tables made from 45mm thick solid oak stock. The tables are cube shaped and quite minimal in the way that they look.

I want to butt joint the cube with a large dovetail splines running the length of the  four joints, exposed at either ends. I want the end grain of the dovetails to be seen from the front and the back as I like the contrast.

My question is if the direction of the grain in the spline is going to cause a problem in the future as it won’t run in the same direction as the carcass. The dovetail spline measures 30mm x 19mm x 410mm, I’m guessing that its so small that any wood movement would be so small as to not make any difference.

I’m also making a matching table and wanted to use the same technique to joint the three boards for the table top. They would work the same as a butterfly key but have the end grain exposed rather than running in the same direction as the wood. The keys would be the same size as the splines in the table (30mm x 19mm). Am I correct in thinking that the grain direction should not matter as they are so small?

Thanks,

Martin.