The mortises have been bored into the sawbench top, and now it’s onto the legs. After choosing pine for my past few projects, the transition to red oak is welcomed. Every species of wood reveals a unique combination of both welcome and challenging quirks. Pine can have a lot of changes in grain direction for example, whereas oak’s coarse grain character calls for a bit more oomph while planing.

The legs start out square, though the dimensions aren’t crucial as the leg geometry will be transformed by significant tapering. Once the majority of the tapering is finished, the top 3 inches of the legs are turned down to tenons, using the old Craftsman lathe. The tenons need to be tapered to match the mortises in the bench top. I brought them to rough shape on the lathe, before moving onto the giant pencil sharpener to finish up the tenons.

The final tuning of the tenon is completed with an aptly named “tapered tenon cutter” from Lee Valley tools, this is sized to match their tapered mortise reamer. At this point, a kerf is sawed into the top of each tenon for the wedges and then the legs can be fitted!