A spline is simply a piece of wood that is inserted into a joint. Splines can be useful in a variety of applications.
A spline can add strength and alignment, especially where there is a specific angle that needs to be held, as in the case of this mirror-frame.
Or, it can solve a particular problem, as when Joe was joining pine wall-boards for an interior wall. He wanted to join them tightly, as with a tongue-and-groove, but he didn’t want to lose any of the height of the boards as he worked up the wall.
So he used a spline! He ran a groove down each wall board, and cut a spline to fit into the grooves, neatly joining the two planks together.
But that created a new problem to solve…How do you plane a piece of wood that is one-half inches wide, one-quarter inch thick, and six-and-a-half feet long?
The answer is: a doe’s foot…a holdfast…and a curving path of bench dogs!
Creative solutions are just part of a day in the workshop when you’re working by hand!
by Sydney Michalski