On 6 Mar, 13:38, John wrote:

Sweet chestnut is good, if you're in the right part of the country.

I'm in Hampshire. *I know that the local sawmill does occasionally have
some chestnut so will have to make a visit.

That's chestnut country. Definitely worth investigating if you're
doing garden work.


Do you know any good online suppliers of bronze nails? *

Boat chandlers. I get mine from Robbins in Bristol. They're not cheap
though! Stainless is cheaper, but I do like the look of bronze with
oak. Mostly (I'm doing indoor furniture) I actually use cheap copper
roofing nails as rivets in drilled holes through fumed oak.


put those diagonals into tension, not compression.

What the reasoning behind? *Is there an advantage to them being in tension?

It's arguable. Mostly an issue for big stuff anyway, so a garden gate
or door is neither here nor there. Theoretically it's stronger with
tension, but there's also an argument that comprssion will tend to
close a joint up if it works loose, rather than pulling apart. You can
also make a door with three ledgers so that it has M shaped bracing,
which can look good.

I've never worked with green oak before is it much easier to work with
than seasoned?

Not much different with power tools, but you'll notice it if you're
hand-chiselling.


I was slightly confused by this description. *I was planning to use
mortice and tenon joints to join the verticals to the the horizontals
then just butting the diagonals in and nailing the planks to the front.

So where are your verticals? In a purely ledged & braced door there
aren't any, just the horizontals and the diagonals. The cladding is
merely a cladding, not part of the joinery. Without the diagonal
braces it would of course be a non-rigid parallelogram, which is why
the form with diagonals is actually easier to make. Otherwise you have
to do something with the vertical cladding that's both rigid, and
capable of handling moisture expansion.

I understand how a half lap joint would be an improvement for the
diagonals, but won't it interfere with the mortice and tenon?

I wouldn't use mortice & tenon joints at all. For a more complex door
(shed or garage rather than garden wall) I would do this with a
rectangular frame. Then I would mortice and tenon the uprights and
horizontals, but probably still lay the diagonals on from
"inside" (under the cladding) with half-laps. I'd make them two-thirds
of the outer frame's thickness, so that's half-laps on the diagonals
and one-third on the main members.


I like the idea of using wooden pegs - I'll have to experiment.

There's a lot of experiment needed there, to know how much oversize is
right to drive in securely, but without risk of splitting.