Riven Hardwood Dowels with a Dowel Plate

A dowel split along the grain keeps every fibre running its full length, so it is stronger than one sawn across the grain. Split a straight log into sticks, dry them, rough them to eight sides and drive each through the holes of a steel dowel plate with a mallet: the sharp edge of each hole shaves the stick round. Dry dowels matter: wood shrinks as it dries, and a dry dowel takes up moisture from the glue and swells tight.

初学者

2 hours, plus drying

说明

Cut a billet

Saw a 300 mm length from a straight, knot-free hardwood log such as oak, ash or hickory.

此步骤所需材料：

硬木原木（栎、槭、山毛榉）1 个

所需工具：

双人横割锯

卷尺

Riving, step by step

How to split along the grain with a froe and mallet.

Rive the sticks

Split the billet in halves, then halves again with the froe and mallet, until each stick is about 5 mm wider than the dowel you want.

所需工具：

劈刀（froe）

木槌

Dry them

Leave the sticks indoors, spaced apart, for several weeks. They are ready when the moisture meter reads 6–8 %, or a little drier than the wood they will go into.

所需工具：

针式木材含水率仪

Rough to eight sides

Plane or pare each stick square, then take the corners off to eight sides, about 1 mm larger than the dowel. Chamfer one end to a blunt point.

所需工具：

短刨

木工凿子套装

Drive through the plate

Clamp the dowel plate in the vise over a gap so the dowel can drop through. Start the chamfered end in the hole one size larger than you want and drive it through with the mallet; then the final hole.

所需工具：