The Use of Mortise and Tenon Joinery in Library Furniture

In many cases, people do not take the time to appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into the furniture that they use on a day-to-day basis. Someone could easily sit down on a chair which is a masterpiece of woodworking, and set their glass of lemonade down on a table which shows prodigious skill in carpentry, repeat this process every day, and never truly know the quality of the pieces they are working with. However, a basic knowledge of the skills and techniques that go into the furniture you use can be a great advantage. Understanding, for instance, the use of mortise and tenon joinery in library furniture can help you decide on the types of library furniture to buy. Luckily, when it comes to mortise and tenon joinery library furniture is one of the simplest applications.

In order to understand the use of mortise and tenon joinery in library furniture, one must obviously first understand how mortise and tenon joinery works in the first place. In essence, the mortise and tenon method is one of the simplest ways to join two parts of a given piece of furniture together. In its most basic form, the process is, essentially, to create a large peg (or tenon) on the end of one of your parts of the piece of furniture, and then fit that peg into a slot (or mortise) in your other piece. By gluing the pieces together and securing the mortise and tenon together, you can effectively create a joint that is remarkably strong. While this method may be quite simple, it is also surprisingly effective in the results it provides, as well as the end result it has from an aesthetic perspective.

There are a number of aspects that may make a mortise and tenon joint somewhat more complex, such as a tenon that comes all the way through the mortise piece, or a method that uses two tenons and two mortises on each piece to make the pieces particularly secure. Due to the flexibility and simplicity of mortise and tenon joinery library furniture is only the beginning of what it is capable of. However, its applications elsewhere are too wide ranging to cover in a single article. This is shown especially well in the sheer range of ways it can be used just within the limits of the library furniture category.

Examples of mortise and tenon joinery in library furniture can be found in the bookshelves, tables, and even chairs that are found in most libraries around the country and around the world. Many times, desks and other various pieces of furniture will also have at least some manner of mortise and tenon joint. So what makes mortise and tenon joinery in library furniture so effective? In essence, it is the simplicity that is often present in library furniture that makes it such an excellent application of this particular method. The mortise and tenon joint provides the strength and versatility that library furniture requires without being overly complex.