How about...

http://www.leeva
lley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=62708&c=

;-)

Pete

-----Original Message-----
From: oldtools-bounces@r... [mailto
:oldtools-bounces@r...] On Behalf Of Phil Schempf
Sent: 22 October 2014 15:36
To: Malcolm Thomas
Cc: oldtools@r...
Subject: Re: [OldTools] advice on finger joints?

Mal-

Your query aroused my curiosity about finger/box joints (I've always thought of
finger joints as those joining lengths of wood as putting your fingers together
parallel and a box joints as those joining at 90°).  As Mike points out, box
joints were used as a quick way to make a box with machines, no surprise there,
but that type of joint has existed for much longer than tailed tools have been
around, assuming you believe what is written on the internet.  Somewhere I found
one reference that such joints were used by the Egyptians.

If I was to set about doing such a joint by hand I would approach it the same
way I would a dovetail, lay out a base line and mark out the "tails and pins".
A hand cut box joint wouldn't need to be regular as a machine cut joint
typically is; the tails and pins could be random widths, but I'm guessing you
want to replicate the machine look so I'd set off the widths with a divider to
the desire dimension.  Pare/saw out the waste.  I think I'd still use the first
cut board to lay out the second so the fingers fit any irregularities resulting
from the handwork.  Glue them up and trim the finger tips you intentionally left
a tad long.

I started into this thinking cutting a box joint would be easier to do by hand
than dovetails, but now I'm having doubts.  A box joint to replicate a machine
cut one needs a high degree of precision and uniformity, something machines are
pretty good at.  Creating that uniformity may be a greater challenge than
creating the hand cut look of dovetails that so many prize.
I'll be interested to hear your thoughts after you've gone down this path.

Phil
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