An oak bench with drawbored mortise joints

The bench is 120 cm long, made from 45 mm oak boards that sat in the garage for two winters. All four leg joints are mortise and tenon, held together by drawbored pegs instead of glue.

Drawboring means the hole through the tenon is drilled about a millimetre closer to the shoulder than the hole through the mortise. When you drive a tapered peg in, it bends slightly and pulls the shoulder tight against the leg. It works even if the wood moves later.

The mortises were chopped by hand with a simple guide block clamped to the leg, which kept the chisel square. Ten mortises took a whole Saturday; next time I will drill out most of the waste first.

Finish: two coats of hard wax oil. The top got a third coat because it will see coffee cups.