# anyone know what kind of joint this is?



## bent (May 9, 2008)

this joint is on a drawer front on a small antique piece. i've never seen one quite like it before. at first i thought it was a just drilled out and a dowel was driven it. but it's actually a round through tenon from the side of the drawer face. i can only imagine what a pain this must have been to make. any ideas what it's called, or how it's made?


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## GFYS (Nov 23, 2008)

Antique router? I'd bet it was made with a rotary tool of some type.


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## Jcpilot (Jan 6, 2008)

Don't know what it would be called. I would cut the drawer sides first then mark the front. You could template rout the drawer front but your template would need to match the drawer side exactly. I'm not sure how I would cut the drawer side. A router bit could hog out most of the waste but it wouldn't be able to get into the sharp points between circles. Chisel the rest? Are you going to use this joint? Let us know how it turns out.


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## Xtreme90 (Aug 29, 2009)

Bears ear joint??


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## SteveMI (May 19, 2009)

I have a round tenon cutter that I use to make dowels. That would make the drawer front real easy with a simple indexing fixture. (Tenon cutter has 870 rpm max so you would need a tall drill press.)

Round mortises in drawer side could be done with forstner bit.

Cutting the rounded humps on the drawer sides could be done with a point cutting roundover router bit. (I have one from Whiteside for routing signs.) Another indexing fixture required.

Aligning the mortises and routed humps on drawer side would need a very accurate fixture.

Steve.


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## Gpops (Dec 20, 2008)

Hi Bent,

I have a chest of drawers that utilizes the same joint. I have been asking for years how it was done. Let me know if you try and how it comes out.


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## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

It's called a pin and crescent joint. I have been waiting for the right project to come along to use it. The problem is that the drawer height has to be divisible by the number of pins and crescents.


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## CaseMan (Nov 4, 2009)

That is a Knapp joint. There was a machine made just for those. It wasn't in popular use for all that long so it may help in dating the piece.

http://www.antiqueweb.com/articles/antique_knapp_joint_dovetail.html
http://thewoodworksinc.com/resources/Knapps%20Pin%20and%20Crescent%20Drawer%20Joint.pdf


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## CaseMan (Nov 4, 2009)

Here's a router jig/template to reproduce the joints.

http://woodworker.com/cgi-bin/FULLPRES.exe?PARTNUM=886-459&LARGEVIEW=ON&CARTID=200402157660284040--1


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## LakelandDave (Dec 25, 2009)

My brother has a beautiful rosewood chest made with these joints. When I looked it up a couple of years ago, I found that it is a machine-made joint, and is known by a number of names: "Pin and Crescent", "Crescent", "Pin and Cove", "Pin and Scallop", "Half Moon", "Knapp" - and likely others. The most common name seems to be the "Pin and Crescent" as noted by GaryK. I also discovered that "Woodworker's Supply, Inc." has a couple of jigs for making them.


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Boy I learned a lot.


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## bent (May 9, 2008)

yeah, me too!

thanks for all the information guys.


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## damianpenney (Jun 22, 2007)

cool


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## reggiek (Jun 12, 2009)

This was most illuminating…..As Jim said…I learned alot about a joint I had not seen very much…and I certainly never had a name for it before…Thanks all for the great lesson.


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## RvK (Nov 22, 2009)

look ma, i learned a new thing! oh wait, i think i just forgot how to blink in order to make room


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## araldite (Jan 29, 2009)

Great thread. There's always something new to learn.


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## Rick Dennington (Aug 27, 2009)

That's a new one on me, boy…....... I always knew there was someone on here that was smarter than me..
Beats me…...... I've never seen it before. Dave, I use Woodworkers Supply a lot. I'll have to look at their jigs again….... never noticed it before. Thanks for a good thread, and good info on the joint…..... later.


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## Jimmy88 (Apr 3, 2009)

just ran across a piece with those joints on my local craigslist. amazing.here


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

It already has me thinking about some possible variations. Is it because I came originally from Wisconsin where Mr. Knapp lived? Very interesting post and follow-up comments. Thanks Bent and everyone else too.


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## dennis (Aug 3, 2006)

I think we have forgotten more about woodworking than we will ever discover. It is becoming a lost art.


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## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

I have to agree with you Dennis. I think one problem to inventing new joints or whatever, is that we don't really need new ones since the old ones work good. In the case of the one above, the motivation was to make money by increasing productivity. In fact a lot of simpler joints than dovetails or variations on them, are in practice just as good and a lot easier to make. If it weren't for the tradition and craftsmanship perspectives, I wonder how many of us would useour time to make them?


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## TopamaxSurvivor (May 2, 2008)

Right on the money Mike. Box joints look better to me than a mitered corner, but dovetails take the GOLD!!


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