44 Joinery joints
MISCELLANEOUS FRAME
JOINTS
Housing joints
Figures 3.42(a)(b)(c)(d): The four types of housing
joint shown here are (a) Through housing; (b) Tongued
(or shouldered) housing; (c) Stopped housing; and (d)
Dovetailed housings. Although there are numerous uses
for these joints in joinery and cabinetmaking, (a) and
(b) are commonly used for jointing the heads of door-
linings; (c) is used to house the treads and riser- boards
into stair- strings – and to act as neat and inconspicu-
ous bearing recesses for shelves; and (d) has a traditional
use in cabinet- making for jointing the ends of drawer-
sides that are inset and emanate from an oversailing
drawer- front. As illustrated, such dovetailed housings
may have a single- or a double- splay.
Halving or half- lap joints
Figures 3.43(a)(b)(c)(d): The four types of joint shown
here are (a) 90° corner halving (or corner half- lap); (b)
T- halving (or T half- lap); (c) Dovetailed halving (or
dovetailed half- lap); and (d) Mitred halving (or mitred
half- lap). These traditional joints have a non- specific
use in joinery and joints (a) and (b) are more com-
monly used in first- fixing carpentry work to join
timber wall- plates, etc, together.
Hand- skills techniques for housing- and
halving- joints
Figures 3.44(a)(b)(c)(d)(e): With all framing joints,
there is a decision to be made whether to mark out
the cross- grain shoulders with a sharp pencil or a
marking knife on the face- sides and edges. To some
extent this depends on the type of joinery being made
and the skill of the woodworker, regardless of whether
softwood or hardwood is being used. With skilful
tenon- saw work, shoulders and sides of housing- and
halving- joints, etc, can be cut accurately against a
sharp pencil- line. However, if you want to be certain
of a good fit and have perfected – or want to practise –
the skill of vertical paring, excellent shoulders can be
achieved by marking deeply with a sharp marking-
knife instead of a pencil, then sawing and leaving
about 1mm (or less) of waste to be pared off with a
bevel- edged paring chisel, as illustrated at 3.44(b) and
(c) below.
As illustrated at (a), after making three or more
cross- grain tenon- saw cuts, vertical paring can also
be practised when removing the waste wood from
halving joints. This illustration indicates slightly-
angled paring from each side onto a waste- wood
chopping board – the angled paring being necessary
to avoid spelching out (breaking away) the fibres on the
opposite edge. After gradual reduction of 2 to 3mm
per paring, down to the gauge line on each side, the
middle peaked area is then vertically pared to create a
flat surface; this is tested with the edge of the chisel,
used as a straightedge.
In most textbooks, this paring technique is usually
shown with the work held in a vice – with the chisel at
about 15° to the horizontal – and being turned around
to reduce the waste on each side of the initial peaked
shape, before being horizontally pared to create theFigure 3.42 (a) Through housing; (b) Tongued (or shoul-
dered) housing; (c) Stopped housing (shown separated);
(d) Stopped dovetailed- housings (single- sided and double-
sided) shown here on drawer- sides.
(a) (b)
(c) (d)
(a) (b)(c) (d)Figure 3.43 (a) 90° corner halving (or corner half- lap);
(b) T- halving (or T half- lap); (c) Dovetailed halving (or
dovetailed half- lap); (d) Mitred halving (or mitred half- lap).