Pegs

[craigc]

I am building the tool-shed in the Sobon and Schroeder book and wondering about pegs.  I was thinking of using 4/4 kiln dried red oak to make 1" pegs, is kiln dried okay to use and how much taper do you put on a peg?

[Jim_Rogers]

Yes, kiln dried oak stock is ok to use.

For 8x8 timbers you should use 10 or 12" pegs. For 6x6 you would use 8 or 10" pegs.

We taper our pegs enough so that when you insert the peg into the mortise hole, and it engages the tenon hole it will slide through and not get caught on the back side of the mortise hole.

Generally we make the 12" peg pretty much constant down to the last 2 or 3" before the tip, and then slope the end to the tip a little more.

Here is a picture of a peg in my shaving horse clamp:



We usually use a shaving horse to hold the roughed out stock and we have drilled a sample hole in the seat of the horse to test our pegs into this hole to insure that they will pass through correctly.

Hope this helps.

Jim Rogers

[craigc]

Thanks for the help you answered all my questions.  And the pictures were great.