On 7/21/2015 8:21 AM, Swingman wrote:
On 7/19/2015 9:27 PM, Sonny wrote:

In essence, I am not totally pleased with my hand cut mortises,
despite their being fairly good.

And highly likely to be plenty sufficient to do the job.

Taking a look at xrays of M&T joints in antique furniture will disavow
you of the idea most old time woodworking was somehow the epitome of
precision when done by hand.

Heck, put an x-ray to my mortises and you will see that one side of the
joint, usually the end of a board, has an exact fit Domino mortise and
the opposite mating side has an elongated Domino mortise, width wise, to
give me a touch of wiggle room during the glue up. Precise fit between
the mortise and floating tenon is not at all necessary in this regard.
It is helpful however if the distance from the reference surface is dead
on so that mating pieces outer surfaces share the same plane. ;~)





Sure, there are a few bespoke "master works" with precision joinery, but
most product of the old time woodworker wouldn't pass the muster of
today's imaginary magazine standards, which are driven by advertising
dollar, in pursuit of a perfection that rarely ever existed in practice.