Joinery

Finally, after several years of prevaricating about the bush, I've relented and joined TATHS. Suspect I'm not the only one who was lured in by the second edition of The Tool Chest of Benjamin Seaton, which has overnight no doubt relegated my first edition from "Retirement Fund" to "Bargain Bin". Not that I was ever going to sell it, but y'know, if pressed... Anyway, the newsletter entertained me, and rather than feeling out of my depth I was comfortably able to boggle that someone didn't know what GTL stood for. So that's all right. 

However, I have yet to crack the spine on Ben Seaton, 'cos I was already immersed in The Essential Woodworker. I've finally come to the realisation that I might as well buy the Lost Art Press publications as they become available, because I'll only succumb in the long run. Would that Ben were bound so nicely. Mind you, it's only served to remind me how not easy I find Robert Wearing's writings to absorb. Not difficult, just... it doesn't flow. I re-read a lot in order to make sense of it, and then get exasperated by the relevant diagram being three pages away.

One of my other irritations is the assumptions. It tells you how to plane up a piece of wood square, then doesn't tell you a word about shooting except to frequently mention doing it. It tells you what order to employ in the making of a frame and panel door (Mortise first, then groove - I always get that wrong, because I can't see why that should be. Anyone?) but not a word of advice on the joint below:

The tenon and housing combination recommended for the beginner as best for fixed shelves. Which yeah, I can see. Indeed, I've always rather liked the look and should like to incorporate it in the old arsenal. But does it give any guidance at all on what order I should cut the thing? Does it hell. I turned to Charlie Hayward (as one does) and he doesn't even acknowledge this joint's existence. Thinking about it, I can't recall anyone giving it much notice at all. Perhaps I'm just as dumb as I look and everyone else is rolling their eyes and just getting on with it, devoting the saving in worry to wondering about their zero radius intersections instead.

So I open it to the floor (with fingers crossed that there's still someone out there) - mortise first, then housing? Or t'other way about? I know which way I think, but see observation above concerning mortises and grooves and my failure to do it properly. Every. Damn. Time.