Trimming tenons

 

In our eternal migrations as humans, we leave our histories behind, so a human yearning to know what came before us is as fixed as the nose on our face

     Kerri Arsenault, Mill Town 

Above are a couple recent chairs. The close one is my design (based at least the bottom off Pete Galberts rocker that appeared in FWW) the farther one is Curtis Buchanan's birdcage rocker. One of these chairs almost put itself together.  The drilled angles were perfect all the measures spot on just easy going. The other one had an extra set of legs made, 3 crests (one drilled acutely not obtuse one broke) 2 sets of arms ( bandsawed them before turning the tenon) and a weird 1" error in the back posts that I only partially fixed. 

My point is that, after paint and finishing, they both look fine and 5 years from now (maybe less) I couldn't tell you which was which. My further point is often just keep going. Because often in chairs are small errors all that noticeable and besides you always need a chair for the neighbor.

So onto the post. One thing that has always vexed me was the little shoulder that forms on the end of the stretcher tenons. I turn my tenons on the lathe with a Veritas tenon cutter ⅝ and because they are green when I turn them initially I have to make them oversize then spin them once dry. This invariably leaves a slight (or not so slight) shoulder which bugs me. 

So I was watching a video with Elia Bizzari and he mentioned how the inside of a steb center is ⅝ and thus will seat the end of the tenon so I can turn and sand it off. 

The problem was the spring loaded spike that comes in the steb center. It made it hard to center the tenon which is kind of the whole point. But a few minutes and a long punch (actually a 4mm Allen wrench) removed the center and now the tenon seats perfectly.  Turn the tenon even little sandpaper and its perfect.  Or as seen in the first picture close enough to perfect.