I have been doing a little research. As I finalized the design of the web frame I’ll be using in the Montreat Side Table, I wasn’t sure what to call the joinery. The web frame will support the drawer and provide much needed structure to the table. The joinery connecting the two rails and two stiles will be simple, by way of biscuits. But the joinery which will attach the completed web frame to the table will be unusual. The research happened while working on the SketchUp model; adding the the web frame to table joinery. These joints are formed by creating a rabbet on three sides of the web frame and then making a corresponding dado in the side and back aprons. I wondered how these two joint names came to be. For rabbet, my Google search took me to Wikipedia which said the rabbet name comes from the Old French term “rabbat” meaning recess in a wall. Dado’s origin is less clear. Again from Wikipedia (the source of all good information right?), the …

Note: I have a brief update on my side table project at the end of this post. I have learned to recognize “the look”. The look usually happens during some casual conversation about my weekend. “How was your weekend?” a friend might say. I usually reply with something related to woodworking. If the look is going to happen, now is the time. In one such example I was at a customer location talking with one of the customer’s employees. When she realized I am a woodworker, this look came over her face. It was like I could see the thought forming in her mind. “You know, I have a bed I need a headboard for; nothing fancy, but I do want upholstered panels in it.” Typically, I can point out my lack of time available to take on such a project and then how incredibly long completing it would take and the look disappears. But this kind of thing happens enough that I can anticipate such requests a second of two before they happen. However, …