Which do you do first? It's like the chicken or the egg question.

[Jim_Rogers]

I read it some where in one of the many woodworking books that I have that there was a standard to do one first then the other.
But I can't remember which one came first.
When creating a joint, not in timber framing but in general woodworking, what is the standard rule?
Do you create the tenon first and then the mortise to fit it? Or do you create the mortise first and then the tenon to fit it?

Thanks

Jim Rogers

[CHARLIE]

I create the mortise first and then fit the tenon to the mortise....only because it is easier and more accurate to trim the wood off a tenon than it is to shave wood out of a mortise.

[scsmith42]

I create the mortise first and then fit the tenon to the mortise....only because it is easier and more accurate to trim the wood off a tenon than it is to shave wood out of a mortise.

+1, same here.  It is much easier to trim a tenon than a mortise...

[T Welsh]

I 3rd that ;) What CHARLIE and scsmith42 said! Its easier to oversize the tenon a hair and trim to fit. Tim

[Jim_Rogers]

Thanks for all your comments and advice.

[WDH]

Yes, mortise first.

[CHARLIE]

With that settled, I say the chicken came first.  It used to be a fish and walked out of the ocean and grew feathers 1.435 years ago. It then layed an egg. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

I agree, but I have done it the other way to. I know my mortise for instance will be 1/2", I make my tenons a little fatter to begin with then shave by rasp or plane for a tight fit after the mortise is cut. Still works. ;) But, you can still make mistakes either way you approach it.

[Lud]

Amen to trim the tenon.

Charlie,  I dunno........I think the  fish got exposed to something  and laid a evolved egg from which came the fish with legs that could get out off the water so one might deduce that the egg came first!......... ;)

[CHARLIE]

So Lud....you are saying the fish came first. :D  I wonder if the fish clucked and had a beak.... :

[WDH]

The egg, definitely.

[pigman]

It depends on the time of day. If it is in the evening, I eat the chicken, but if it is the morning, I eat the egg.

[CHARLIE]

So, since evening comes before morning, that is proof that the chicken came before the egg......

[WDH]

A man has to use logic on a problem like this  .

[red oaks lumber]

if the chicken came from the sea, wouldn't it be star fish tuna? :D

[WDH]

I don't know.....we will have to ask Charley  :D.

[CHARLIE]

I think it was called Chicken of the Sea Tuna, which is more proof that the chicken came before the egg. ;D

[SwampDonkey]

He was banned from the store shelves 25 years ago.  ;D

[WDH]

Wasn't Charley the tuna on the Starkist commercial?

[SwampDonkey]

Yes, Starkist was pulled from shelves here years ago. Something like, rotten fish, had something to do with it.  :-\

[SwampDonkey]

"Tunagate"

[Clam77]

 :D   Starkist is still going strong here.  Love me a good hot gooey tuna melt...   ;)

As for the chicken or the egg......   :P   8)