The Perpetual Mortise and Tenon Question,

I use a multi router since I’m using loose tenon joinery I cut mortises on both pieces.

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I’m kind of with Jim in that I like loose tenon joinery. However, that said, I would definitely cut the mortise first and then the tenon. It’s easy to resize a tenon by either shaving with a shoulder plane or even just sandpaper. It is also easy to glue a shim on to a tenon if you accidentally cut it too small. However, precisely resizing a mortise is not so easy.

-- Hey, woodworking ain't brain surgery. Just do something and keep trying till you get it. Doc

Here here….I agree with doc

-- Gary, DeKalb Texas only 4 miles from the mill

Mortise first, i dont trust my skills enough to size and place a mortise based on a tenon

-- I know its around here somewhere...

Mortise than Tenon.

-- Bill - "Freedon flies in your heart like an Eagle" Audie Murphy

Mortise first

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence Wake Up America!! Please read; http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/26-0

Mortise first. It is relatively easy to take wood off the tenon to get it sized correctly but it is tough to add wood to a mortise that is too large.

-- Challenges are what make life interesting; overcoming them is what makes life meaningful- Joshua Marine

mortise first. as said – it’s easier to work on the tenon and resize it to fit the mortise than to resize the mortise blindly

-- ㊍ When in doubt - There is no doubt - Go the safer route.

Yep! I concur, mortise first.

I usually use loose tenons. However, on those occasions when I decide to do a conventional M&T joint I always cut the mortise first. Then I “sneak up” on the size of the tenon using a tenoning jig.

-- Rich, Cedar Rapids, IA - I'm a woodworker. I don't create beauty, I reveal it.

It seems unusual that everyone agrees on almost anything. I agree as well.

I use the Festool Domino most of the time for my M&T, but sometimes resort to the router with some jigs.

Domer

Thank you everyone for your answers. Domer, I completely agree that it is unusual that agreement was happening, and I kind of feel bad to be the one to break up the togetherness.

I do infact cut my tenons first, I find sneaking up easier by paring the walls of the mortise, I was inspired enough by this question and by the seeming oddness that I seem to be that I wrote a article for my blog about the question and the methods I use when I make my M&T joints

you can check it out at my blog Inside The Oldwolf Workshop, and feel free to leave me a comment,

infact someone else out there has to cut the tenons first, I can’t be the only one! please speak up and help me feel better about myself :)

Cheers
Oldwolf

-- Oldwolf - http://insidetheworkshop.blogspot.com/

I haven’t had a project that uses M&T joints yet, but I’d think that doing the tenon first would be the easier way to go. Only because you should be able to stencil the mortise around the tenon you already made. I can’t really see any way to stencil a tenon around an already made mortise. Is there a trick to this, or do you just go off measurements and trial’n error?

-- If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

mortise first but any man who cant cut the mortise after the tenon is only half the woodworker he thought he was.

-- "Good artists borrow, great artists steal”…..Picasso

I have found that cutting the mortise first (I’ve hacked them out by hand and with an MDF jig and a spiral upcutting bit) allows me to make the tenons with a stacked dado head on the table saw a little snug, then I use a sanding block to clean up the saw marks and dial in the fit.

If you’re exposing the ends of your through tenons, like I often do with Arts & Crafts furniture, it’s very important to get the fit nice and tight, since it will be the first place your eye will go. If I was paring down my mortise, I would be afraid to make a goof that would show. Plus, I’ve got to bevel the ends of my tenons anyway, so I might as well clean up the shoulders while I’m at it.

-- You can't control the wind, but you can trim your sails