for holding round pieces requiring to be sawn across, and for this purpose it is a good plan to fit one into the top of the sawing bench or stool. To plane long thin slips, or laths, which would bend and break if set against the planing stop, the easiest way is to tack them to the bench at the end next to the right hand by running a bradawl through and thus pinning them down. In this way, the

action of the plane tends to stretch instead of doubling up the strip,
which
may in this manner be also planed to the extreme end. Mitred
edges or bevels are planed in a similar way with those which are
rectangular. For those which run lengthwise of the board, a long
planing guide is needed, on which the plane sole, and its side, rest
The drawback to
in positions according to the angle required.
such planing boards is the liability to cut the guide as well as the

work, and when the former is of iron the tool is of course liable to injury. Hence, it will often be found to be the best plan to place the plank edgewise as usual in the bench vice, and with a gauge set to the exact thickness of the same; after it has been planed up truly square, run a fine line on the flat side. If the edge is then bevelled carefully to this line, the desired effect will be produced without any guideboard or mitre block being needed. In large joinery works the mitring and bevelling is done chiefly by circular saws, the work being fixed at the required angle. It is afterwards finished by hand if required, or by a planing machine arranged for the purpose. For planing the angles of picture frames at 45 deg., Fig. 108 is used, but frequently in this case the work is left rough fron the mitre saw, to cause it the better to hold the glue used to unite the several pieces. Fig. 109 is another form of mitring guide or box. The saw cuts* are made at the required angle, and the squared strips, or pieces of moulding, for which the apparatus is chiefly used, being placed in position, resting against the further side of the channel, the mitre saw is inserted in the kerf, and the piece accurately cut off, either squarely or at the desired angle. There is seldom occasion to touch the cut edges, either with chisel or plane.

It will be as well to recur in this place to dovetailed joints, of which only one kind has been described, namely, that in which the forms of the pins or dovetails are visible in both pieces thus joined. This is never practised on articles of furniture, unless veneer is to be afterwards added to conceal the joints. Fig. 110 represents the corner of a drawer as commonly made, ou which, although the dovetails are seen at the side when the drawer is open, they are entirely invisible in front. The latter having been planed up square and true, a line C D is made with the gauge on both ends of the same to mark the portion which is to be left uncut. The sides (of much thinner stuff) are then planed up, and the dovetails marked and cut as shown. This is then laid in place, with the extremity accurately adjusted to the gauged line, and with a finely pointed scriber the dovetails are traced upon the ends of the front of the drawer, which thus contains the pins. These cannot be

* Made too wide in the drawing; they are merely as thick as the saw blade.

sawn, but must be cut with a sharp chisel down to a second line, made with the gauge set to thickness of the side pieces. Again the amateur is warned to leave all lines thus scratched, and in nowise to cut them out in the preparation of the several pieces. Instead of only concealing the dovetails from the front piece as in a drawer, they may be so constructed as not to appear at all, and the only sign of any joint will be a fine, almost imperceptible, line on the angle. Even this will not be seen after the finishing and polishing is done. Let the pieces be first rebated out, as A B, Fig. 111. The pins and dovetails are then to be cut with a chisel in both parts, below the rebate, which is then to be cut to a mitre. This is not only the neatest plan, but requires care, and is the most difficult to manage, because the pieces cannot be fitted together until the mitring is also done. An easier method, and one almost equal in appearance, is the lap dovetail, in which only one piece is rebated, but the dovetails in the other are not cut through, Fig. 112. In this case no such difficulty occurs in marking and cutting the pins which are made in the rebated piece, and the pieces can be tried in their places with ease, as in common dovetailed work.

There are other modes of uniting pieces at right angles, and even the simple mitre joint is greatly used, in which each piece is planed to an angle of 45° and glued. After being placed together, two or three fine saw cuts are made through the angle, in opposite directions, and slips of veneer inserted, which when the work is dry are cut with a chisel flush with the sides of the work. These are not then unsightly, and the joint is sufficiently strong for most purposes. A great deal of work-generally all but boxes, drawers, and such like-is joined up by ordinary mortise and tenoned joints. It is unnecessary to describe the mode of doing this, further than by the illustration, Fig. 113. The tenon and mortise are to be marked with the aid of the square and gauge on both sides. The mortise is cut half from one side, and half from the other, to insure its being made at right angles to the upper and lower surfaces of the wood. Figs. 113B and 113c show the method of wedging up such mortised joints. The mortise is first cut straight

A

through the piece and afterwards sloped off, as seen in 113B. small wedge is then brushed over with glue and driven in on each side of the tenon, to which it adheres, and when dry it is impossible to separate the pieces without breakage of the wood itself. In larger work this joint is generally pinned through the side with oak trenails, as shown in 113°, instead of being fastened with wedges. If it is purposely intended to place the two pieces at other than a right angle, the square is replaced by the bevel, Fig. 114, generally made by the workman of wood, like a shut-up knife, but without a spring. A superior form, Fig. 115, is made with a metal blade, the joint in which is formed with a slot, as shown. This bevel is very convenient, being capable of more extensive adjustment, the slot enabling the instrument to be used as a T-square or T-bevel, the whole of the edge coming into use, and thus, too, the larger angle, A B C, can be measured and set off on the piece instead of the smaller, which may be at times con venient. In this place it will, perhaps, be to the advantage of the reader who is ignorant of mathematics, to set forth a few simple facts concerning lines and angles, which will often simplify the process of setting out work. When straight lines cut each other, as Fig. 116, the two smaller angles, a a, are equal, and the two larger, b b, are also equal. The four together equal four right angles* of 90° 360° (see foot-note), and 90°=360°

* An angle, it must be understood, is the corner (Lat.: angulus) formed by B

270

315X

360

90

the meeting of two lines at a point. The C length of the lines has nothing to do with

the size of such angle. If a pair of compasses are opened, the legs may be of any length, the longer they are the further apart their points will be, but to enlarge the angle at the joints you must open them

wider. This results from the fact that an angle is measured by a circle, always divided into 360°, no matter what may be its size. In the diagram the angle at A formed by the meeting of the lines A B, A C, is 45°, extending these lines they reach the second or the third circle, but still they point to 45° upon its circumferance, which is the measurement of the angle.

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