Replies

1. 
   cherryjohn | Dec 01, 2005 04:54am | #1

   Sounds stout enough to me.  I make windsors and the tennon is 5/8" x 1" deep.  They are plenty strong.  The problem you might have will be the flex the chair will see when someone sits on it.  If the stretchers arent preloaded the natural tendency of the legs to splay will pull the glue joints apart over time....... a relatively short time.

   Wicked Decent Woodworks

   (oldest woodworking shop in NH)

   Rochester NH

   " If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy........yessa!"

2. 
   joinerswork | Dec 01, 2005 04:27pm | #2

   John,

   1 1/8" long stretcher tenons will be plenty strong.  I use 1" long tenons on both the seat rails and stretchers of the chairs I build, 5/16 or 3/8" thickness. 

   Overly long tenons will weaken the leg if they are so long that they meet at the inside corner, so you have to use some judgement so as not to end up with a thin shell of  wood around the tenons at the top of the front leg for instance.  It's standard practice to haunch the seat rail tenons so the top of the front leg will have plenty of meat there.  On period chairs, the stretchers below are usually offset in height from front-to-side, and back-to-side, so you don't have that problem there.

   Regards,

   Ray Pine

1. 
   Stephenson | Dec 01, 2005 06:29pm | #3

   Thanks for the input.

   I think I may have miss typed. The stretchers I'm concerned about are the "seat rails". I plan on making the lower stretchers today (I'm still not sure on the configuration I will make them in.

   When I made the seat rails I did not make haunched tenons, I just made a simple tenon. This chair is just a prototype for five or six to come, so do yuou think I should switch to a haunched tenon?

   Thanks again, John.

1. 
   joinerswork | Dec 02, 2005 09:22pm | #4

   John,

   When I read the tenon size, 1 1/8 x 2", on a 3 1/2" rail, it sounds like you've already got a 1 1/2" haunch there.  I'm referring to a shoulder, holding the tenon down from the top edge of the seat rails, at the front leg joint, what the guys I worked with called a "hanch" here in VA.

   Regards,

   Ray Pine

1. 
   rwdare | Dec 04, 2005 06:51pm | #5

   On period chairs, the only kind I build, typically the mortices do meet and the ends of the tenons are mitered with a small gap between them so the joint isn't pushed apart when the legs shrink. Typical tenons are 5/16 or 3/8" and normally cut down  (haunched) about a 1/2" below the rabbet fot the slip seat and barefaced on the bottom.

   I have never seen an original with an angled tenon, the old guys angled the mortice because the straight grain in the tenon was stronger. That said I do occasionally angle the tenon in order to save time and have a set of chairs over 20 years old with no joint failure. I also assemble furniture with hide glue so that if, or should I say when, it needs repair, it can easily be disassembled.

   Dick