Cut Big Tenons

A tutorial on a tough task.

Chris is wearing Dearborn Denim carpenter’s pants and a shirt from LaFaurie. And he don’t give a poo about it.

The large tenons on the shepherd’s coffer I am building are uncommon in typical furniture making. A typical tenon for a cabinet door or face frame is somewhere between 1-1/2" to 3" wide. For this project, you’ll rip through 6" to 8" of wood to make a tenon cheek – and do it more than 40 times to make the 20 tenons.

That sounds more like timber framing.

So your tools and your approach need to be different. Instead of a tenon saw, consider a rip panel saw (6 or 7 ppi works). I built this coffer out of poplar with some squirrely grain. If the grain had been straight (or if I’d used straight oak or ash like a smart fashion icon), then I would have simply split the tenon cheeks off the boards with a wide chisel and mallet.

If you are, however, in it for the slog, here’s how to do it.

A tenon saw is no help here. A rip panel saw (or a full-size 26"-long handsaw) is the way to go. Contro…