Dovetailed Battens (the Dumb Way)

Part 3 of the chair-building series.

There are many ways to connect battens to a seat. I’ve seen them all.

1. A sliding, tapered dovetail made with a special plane
2. A sliding dovetail made with basic tools
3. A batten glued in a dado (the parts were plywood)
4. Nailed-on or screwed-on battens
5. Battens that were not attached to the seat; they were held in place only by the tenon shoulder in the leg and a wedge through the seat

All the methods work. You can choose any of these and expect the chair to survive a long time. When I make a chair with battens, I use method No. 2: a sliding dovetail made with basic tools.

It suits my head. The joint is made with a saw, a router plane and a smooth plane. No special tools or skills are required, just an awareness of which side of a pencil line you should saw.

Overview

First saw or plane the long edges of the batten to 16°. Clamp the batten in place on the seat and use its long edge to guide your saw for the first cut. Then use a scrap from the batten to lay out the position of your seco…