Wood. Food. More.

Building a Cane #14: Joining the pieces

Today’s 90 minutes of shop time started with some shaping of the handle. I dry fit the shaft into the handle, and then shaped the piece of granadillo so all the curves were smooth.

Then I got out the mallet, and pounded the live oak peg through the holes in the handle and the shaft. They were ¼ inch (6mm) holes, with the one in the shaft offset by 1mm toward the shoulder of the joint. As you can see, I mushroomed the last bit of the peg pretty severely.

The head-end of the peg (trenail) that holds the shaft and handle together is quite seriously mushroomed - the peg was initially ¼ inch in diameter (6mm) and after pounding it through the handle and shaft, the end of it is over ½ inch (12mm)

The pointy end of the peg got bent somewhat by its trip through the holes. Note that I tapered only the first ¼ to ⅜ inch of the peg, and then soaked it for about a half-hour in almost-boiling water. That softened the peg enough that I had some problems driving it home. I'm not sure if I recommend that or not, but Elia Bizzarri did study boiled joints and I think they're a solid thing, but maybe don't combine well with drawboring.

The pointy end of the peg, visibly bent to one side after its trip through the slightly offset holes - the angle is about 30 degrees

The tenon on the cane shaft was intentionally a bit long. After getting the joint together, I added some small wedges (of soft maple, I think) to fill gaps.

The end of the tenon, poking through the mortise in the handle - small bits of soft maple wedges are visible on two sides of the tenon, wedging it tightly in place

I also filled the tiny gaps around the peg with ash sawdust and CA glue.

The end of the peg, sawn flush with the side of the handle, with a mixture of ash sawdust and CA glue around it, filling any gaps

Also filled around the tenon.

The tenon, sawn flush with the top of the cane, and with ash and CA glue filler filling a few very tiny gaps

And after some sanding to clean things up, I put another coat of oil on everything. I can still see a few spots where there’s open grain, so I think I need at least 3-4 more coats of Tru-Oil before I can call this done.

The nearly-finished cane, looking shiny in the light, with no visible gaps and most of the grain filled

Overall, I think it’s looking pretty good, though.

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