Lost Art Press

Chairmaking on the Cheap(er) Part 2: Leg Tenons

Posted on by Lost Art Press

Nearly all vernacular chairs use straight (not tapered) cylindrical tenons throughout.

Before I owned a tapered tenon cutter and reamer, I used a 1”-diameter auger to make the mortise in the seat, and I shaved the tenons on the legs to size with planes. This requires great care.

You can greatly speed the process by using a plug cutter in a drill or a brace to cut the tenons. These inexpensive tools ($16 to $38) are widely available. They are supposed to be used “only in a drill press,” but you can use them safely in a handheld drill or brace as long as you first taper the tip of your tenon.

I make this taper with a jack plane. First I drill a shallow 1”-diameter hole in the center of the end of the leg to act as a target to work toward. Then I use a coarse-set jack plane to waste away the top of the leg until the tenon cutter just barely fits over the tip of the leg.

Next I level the leg in my vise, and I level the tenon cutter (I use a bubble level I epoxied to my drill’s body). Then I drill. It makes a nearly perfect 1”-diameter tenon (0.995”). The tenon has a shoulder, which I like for mechanical reasons. I like to lock the shoulder against the underside of the seat and lock the tenon in the top of the seat with a wedge. But you can plane away the shoulder if you like. Here’s a short movie that shows the tenon-cutting process.

More tips to come.

— Christopher Schwarz

20 thoughts on “Chairmaking on the Cheap(er) Part 2: Leg Tenons”

  1. Is there anyway to correct an error using this method? It seems like there is a tiny margin for error, where as a tapered joint can be reamed to fix a slight inconsistency

    1. Hi Jason,

      Yes, there are ways to make small corrections. Usually the tenon in handwork is off-center slightly and off-axis slightly. You can rotate the legs in their mortises until they all look their best.

      1. Sorry, one last thought. How does this tenon work with rake and splay? Being it has a shoulder, I assume you would want to be conservative on the angles so it makes enough contact with the bottom of the chair seat?

        1. Unless you have zero rake and splay, there is only a small amount of shoulder that contacts the seat. That’s all you need, realistically. So no, I don’t think there are considerations for rake and splay with this method.

  2. Short video with music – the Schwarz is ready for TikTok! 🙂
    Thank you for keeping approachability in mind. You sure are a man of the people!

  3. I don’t know if you have a linisher or a disk sander with a table, but if you do you could bevel the end of the intended tenon on one of those instead of using a jack plane: it’s akin to sharpening a giant pencil.

  4. Epoxying a level to the side of the drill — I already have a tenon cutter & such, but this tip seems valuable.

  5. Excellent music choice, perfectly fits the quick tip theme. This is my first time commenting but the video earned a smile, which is hard to do with me in the morning, so high praise indeed!

  6. Handy, since the LV tenon cutter I was going to buy is twice the price and out of stock.

  7. i used a hole saw in a drill press to make short dowels. i suspect it would work the same way with a hand held drill for cutting tenons. only thing is you would have to come back and cut off the corner waste left over. I’ve also had good success using a band saw to remove the bulk of the waste and cleaning up with a rasp. for the band saw, you first round the whole leg, then use the fence. rotate the stock against the fence as you nibble away at the waste. if you wanted hexagoal or octagonal legs, your tenon would end up matching the shape of your leg. then come back with a rasp to knock down the corners and you’re done.

  9. These cutters also come in metric if you need to enlarge your tenon a bit.
    This type of woodworking is accessible to everyone. Low cost tooling with free video. Thanks for providing the service!

  10. Thanks for the tip. You folks are so cutting edge helpful and generous. Love the music too. Can you post music credits for us bluegrass lovers as well.

  12. You do that really well, I’ve never managed to figure out how to make a straight tenon using one of them. Always fall back to spoke shave and scraper. Guess I should practice a bit more.

    1. My tenons improved once I made sure the leg was level in the vise (thanks, spirit level), and the drill/brace was also level (thanks bubble level). Before that, it was a crap shoot.

  13. Hi Chris and anyone who may understand the difference between dowel and tenon cutters,

    Lee valley tapered tenon cutters are out of stock often but their dowel/cylindrical cutters are usually in stock.

    Interestingly, they seem to be the same body but the taper cutters have a straight blade whereas the dowel/cylindrical cutters have a angled blade.

    Even more interestingly, one can purchase the straight blades separately.

    It follows, that one so inclined could purchase a dowel/cylindrical cutter (with a angled blade) and a separate straight blade, put the straight blade on the dowel/cylindrical cutter and it will magically transform into a tapered tenon cutter.

    As a newbie to both cylindrical and tapered tenons, I’m not sure this is accurate. All I know is, after one chair making them with a jack and a block, I’m looking for a different way :).

    Perhaps someone wiser and with more experience can confirm my hypotheses? If true, it may be another way for those to avoid the wait list for (some) chair making tools.

    Thanks for what you do. As someone who always thought chairs were a big investment to even try making, I’m loving making my way through The Stick Chair Book.

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