Edge Joints.
—There are three easy ways to make flat, or edge joints and these are (a) the square, or butt joint; (b) the lap-joint and (c) the matched joint, all of which are shown in [Fig. 3].
In the square joint the edges of the boards are simply butted together and nailed, screwed or glued. This joint is very weak unless the abutting ends are fastened to something else.
In the simplest form of lap-joint the edge of one board is laid on top of the other board and these are nailed or otherwise fastened together. A neater lap joint is made by cutting away half of the edge of each end of the boards so that when they are fitted and fixed together the surfaces of the boards at the joints are even and smooth.
A better joint than the lap-joint is made by planing a tongue on the edge of one board and a groove in the other. To do this easily, neatly and quickly you need a rabbet plane and as this is quite a costly tool, you can get along very well without it by using the lap-joints.
Corner Joints.
—There are five corner joints which you should know about and these are (a) the butt, or square joint; (b) the lap, or rebated joint; (c) the mitered corner pieced joint; (d) the common dove-tail box joint, and (e) the regular dove-tail joint, pictures of all of which are shown in [Fig. 4].
Now when you can saw a board off straight, plane it true and make a good joint you will have small trouble in making anything in wood that you want to make.
| A· THE BUTT OR SQUARE JOINT | B· THE REBATED JOINT | C· THE MITERED CORNER PIECE JOINT |
| D· THE SIMPLE BOX DOVETAIL | E· A BETTER FORM OF DOVETAIL |