Most of our joints have no screw in them and some have no glue. They are held by a peg of riven oak, as barn frames have been held for six hundred years.
The mortise and the tenon
A tenon is a tongue cut on the end of one piece. A mortise is the hole cut in the other to take it. Fitted well, they hold by friction alone; pegged, they cannot pull apart.
Draw-boring
We bore the hole through the mortise first, then fit the tenon and mark where the hole falls on it. That hole is bored a couple of millimetres closer to the shoulder.
When the peg is driven, it has to bend to pass through both holes, and as it bends it pulls the tenon in tight. The joint is clamped for as long as the peg lasts.
Why it matters in a table
A table is pushed and leaned on every day. A glued joint holds until the glue fails; a draw-bored one holds while the oak does. It is the reason we can offer ten years of free repairs and rarely need to make any.
