# "Feather Tenon," anyone?



## pjaromin (Nov 28, 2007)

The other day I was surfing Wikipedia and came across this article on Mortise and tenon joinery.










I was surprised that there was no mention of "mortise and loose tenon." In that article, the joint was labeled as a "feather tenon." I'd never heard it called that. Being curious, I did a google search that resulted in only 50 results, 14 of which were displayed. Nearly all of them were exact copies of the original wikipedia article. A similar search for "loose tenon" results in thousands of hits.

My thought is that either:

a) "Feather tenon" is technically correct, copied from some textbook somewhere, but no longer (or rarely, or never) used.

b) "Feather tenon" is used outside the US or the "English-speaking world" and the English definition simply dominates the internet.

c) The definition is incorrect or written perhaps by someone who either misunderstood or is in a relatively isolated region of the world where "feather tenon" is the more common name.

(update) or d) I'm living in a cave?!?

Since I know there are members from a wide range of countries, continents and woodworking traditions in this community (did you know that the site owner isn't American! - sorry, Martin, I couldn't help myself!  ), surely if it's in common use, someone here will know about it!

Can anyone set me straight?


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## ropedog (Mar 26, 2008)

i have heard it called a loose or floating tenon but never a feather tenon.


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## OutPutter (Jun 23, 2007)

I've never heard the term before either. But, you know, the description "feather tenon" got me to thinking. What if the loose tenon was cut over size by a little bit and the sides were "feathered" just like a featherboard for keeping your work tight against the fence? Then you would have a tenon that is "one way" because it's slightly larger than the mortise and would also have a much larger glue surface that prevents both hydrostatic glue pressure and starving the joint during glue up. Put all this together and I can imagine a better mortise and tenon joint using these "feather tenons". Cool.


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

Never heard the term Patrick.


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## thetimberkid (Apr 5, 2008)

That looks interesting!

Thanks for the post

Callum


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## teenagewoodworker (Jan 31, 2008)

never heard of it either! its always been a loose tenon to me.


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