The tapered mortises are finished, and the legs have been shaped into their matching tapered tenons. Now they must be brought together…forever… To help persuade this union, I am going to drive a wedge into the top of the joint. (Disclaimer: This is not recommended for other types of unions.) Using the bandsaw, the wedges are cut from a leftover scrap of white oak.

A short kerf is sawed into the tenons to minimize the chance of splitting the bench top with the wedge. At this point, the skill set required to complete the sawbench is reduced to those of a caveman.  The legs are glued up and seated with a deadblow hammer. Then glue is also applied to the wedges which are driven into the kerfs. Repeat with liberal hammer blows to each leg, then wait for the glue to dry.

This whole process goes along remarkably quickly given the amount of time the rest of the project has taken. I let the bench sit for 24 hours to give the glue time to cure before trimming the protruding mortise and wedge flush with the bench top.

Now that the legs are attached the whole bench can be leveled and the legs trimmed to length. An ideal height for the bench is just below the height of your knee. This allows you to easily use that knee to “clamp” whatever piece you’re cutting to the top of the bench. Nice and simple.