How to cut a BRIDLE JOINT by HAND

hello everyone today I'm going to show you how to cut a bridle joint entirely by hand no machines whatsoever so let's go so two blank bits of timber let's get in close and see what tools we need so tools we need for this are marking night square mortise gage you Jesus pen a saw chisel and a hammer and what would make this join even easier to cut is firstly a shoulder plane or a router plane and a crosscut saw Thor obviously the cross cutting but a rip saw will do that so let's get into marketing out shall we that's the first thing let's move all of this rubbish actually out the way what's the first thing we're gonna do here is mark our face size and face edges so I mean they both look good so that is going to be the outside face there I reckon and this one here can be the outside face as well those bits are going to go together like that or like that it doesn't really matter so next thing we're going to do is mark the width of this component into this component and vice versa so we are going to get our square for that reference it off of the face edge here and then put the other component on get it flush on the end if the end of this isn't perfectly square you can leave it overhanging a little bit by about a millimeter or so I'm going to leave those overhanging by a small fraction go and then just square that across with a knife and we're going to go all the way around this component making short of reference off either the face side or the face edge so I'm going to work my way around now because we've done on that one we're going to do exactly the same on this one now so referencing off the face side get it on there leave it overhanging by a tiny bit so we've got stuff to plane off at the end okay so they're marked up all the way around now so it's going to set up our mortis gauge now I know these components to be 26 millimeters and for a bridal joint to get maximum strength you just wanted to write that by three so that obviously isn't happening we're gonna get as close as possible so I'm gonna do some quick math 26 divided by three equals eight point six so I think eight point six I'm going to make that middle section nine millimeters round it up and then the outer ones will be whatever left so let's get this set up first so a good addition to get to these Veritas mortis gauges is a shaft clamp down here which allows you to move both of these blades in unison up and down so that I can set the width to nine millimeters in this case and then I can obviously adjust the offset without changing the distance between these two heads I haven't actually got around to buying the shaft clamp on there yet so I'm going to do this a different way if I mark halfway on here so 26 divided by two is obviously 13 so do a little knife mark there and then I can just offset that by 4.5 either side and then I have a nine millimeter tongue in the middle so there we go on there I've got a little point here a little point here and then that is my 9 millimeters on that so now I can just set these up to hit both of those points and I'll see here I'm still referencing off the face over here to allow our joint to go together flush at the end of it so yeah that one's locked on on that point down there that one is locked on on the other point so now we can go all the way around with this it's tempting to sort of try and do them both at once don't bother about just doing one at the time so the far side down start with and then I'll do the one closest to me and I guess that will have marked all the way around and we're going to do the same on here referencing off our face sides all the way around okay so those are both exactly the same components now the only thing we need to do now is make sure we remove the correct material on each them so if we assemble them like we have done here so face sides out and up so it doesn't matter which way around we do this but we need to make sure we're removing this outside one on here and this outside cheek on here and then on this other component we are removing this middle section we're not removing the outer cheeks because that's going to give us two Tenon's which obviously we don't want because it's not going to go together just scribble e-waste on there and now we're ready to hack it out so to the vise okay so firstly we're gonna remove the component with the waste on the outside so as I said in the videos on how to cut a lap joint I think it was don't have the workpiece up like this because then you're committing to cutting this top line here and you're also committing to cutting both of these so three lines altogether if you tilt it forwards like this then I can work to this line that I'm looking at now and this line here I don't have to worry about this one on the back when I get to that I can flip it over and continue with it there so then I'm focusing on two lines and then one line instead of three all at once so we're saying now that I did a video on how to source are the links up in the top corner here but I'd watch that before you do this because it's going to give you a few tips and as with all the other joints I'm not going to cut directly to that line because I like to clean up afterwards with a chisel yes that's that side I've done though we're just gonna flip it over and like say continue with this other line here [Laughter] okay so now obviously that has left us with a pyramid in the middle of here where we've worked for the both sides so we're just gonna remove that now so saw down through the top that's gonna lock into place with all three of those lines please now remove the cheeks on that and obviously this we're a crosscut saws can be better because we're cutting across the grain but you could still use your rip saw for this so it gets close to that line as you dare and then just cut it all off voila there we go now we have one part of our Bridal joint okay so now we've got to work on removing the waste in this middle section here to accept the tenon the way you've just cut now one thing to note about this it's not a problem with thicker components like this but when you start working down with thinner components where this gap in here is say six millimeters or not it's very difficult to get your chisel in there and clean it up so this being nine mil it's perfectly okay but if it is thinner you may have to resort to cutting straight to the line with the saw which I'll fee for some people is quite a daunting thought the other option is get yourself a paring chisel I mentioned them in my video watch is also you need the link is up here for that and another quality of a parent chisel is that it has a slightly thinner section on it so you may be able to get a little bit further into there if you think about it you only need to get in half way from each side in order to reach the middle so it's not too bad but anyway let's get hacking it out and to remove this material in the middle here you could get a chisel that work from both sides and just take out small chunks at the time until you can obviously remove that section I forgot to mention it in the intro again but you could also use a coping saw or threats or for this that's what I'm going to do make life a bit easier okay and there we go so now let's get cleaning this all up so to remove a section here we're just going to get the widest chisel we can find that's gonna fit in there and then just work through halfway from each side and the same with all the other joints we don't want to go straight into that shoulder line because it's just going to compress it back we want to keep having the material until we can't have it anymore so I'm about a millimeter away I'm going to take it's a half a millimeter and again I'm standing here so I'm facing it this way and I can see if the chisel is tilting forwards or backwards if I was standing looking at it from this way you can't see that angle so we're down to that shoulder line let's just flip it over and do the other side now I could have got way closer with the frets over oh well okay right so that is all chopped down to the base on now and now we can just work our way around these edges and pare that down so that we get a nice crisp joint all the way down to those lines that we've marked okay so before working our way down to this line along here we want to make sure that it's not going to split below that shoulder line there so obviously if I whack it into there it's just gonna follow the grain that's gonna break out below there so I'm just going to get my chisel in there and then just give it a few small taps to chop out the corner up to the edge of that line so a few more okay so that's just a tiny bit beyond it now and that's gonna stop it splitting below that short line so now I can start working it back that's still I don't want to put my chisel straight into that line or to work it back half way at a time obviously so half that material there and I'm looking at it with my sight going down this line here so again I can see if that she is always tilting forwards or backwards when you're working back to this line don't go smashing straight through all the way either because if I start doing that you see how it's splitting away from the edge of the chisel here that's going to continue on up and it may go past that shoulder line there so just do small tracks establish the line along the top but that so now we're about half a millimeter away and then we're just going to pop a chisel in that line give it a little bit more wedding but again don't give it all the way through but it's still splitting beyond that line essentially all we're doing at this point is just establishing that outer line this way you want to make sure it's particularly square so now that outer line there is all established we can just break that off we're going to do that to both sides on all three phases okay so now works my way all the way around we're down to the baseline on all three edges and now we've just got the small humps in the middle to remove so all I'm going to do is obviously have the work upright like this and I'm just gonna work through it with a chisel like this just eyeball it as I go through I know this top edge here is perfectly flat so I can use the bottom of the chisel to register against that and make sure that we are running flat all the way through and there we go so just every now and then remove all the fluff out of it like a satisfying job and just keep working your way around think I've given enough attention to this side I'm just going to flip it around now and do the same on the other side okay so I've worked the inside of this we got that down to the cheeks pretty nicely the next thing I'm going to do is just check this bottom shoulder line here there you go and you see it's rocking like that so that means that we've got a high point in the middle so I'm just going to pair through on there and just remove that high point and again you could undercut this area if you want in fact I'm going to do that this time it's all an undercut is we're just going to angle the chisel up ever so slightly and put the small dip in the middle you're never gonna see it so it doesn't really matter so you see that's it flat in there I'm just gonna lift it up about that much a tiny tiny amount so yep there's that side undercut yeah and just clean out the fluff that I can see in the corners down here and now we can get trimming down the tenon to fit into this okay so to trim this part that joint it's gonna be very similar to the lap joint so I'm only gonna skim over it what we're going to do is work down to this shoulder line first so again looking it from this direction to check if the chisel was tilting or not we're gonna have that material to take it about half a millimeter away from the shoulder line do our final chop all the way along same on this side and then on these edges here we're gonna pair our way in from each them down to that base line and then once that has been established on both of them we're going to come back with either a shoulder plane or a router plane and take out the remaining material in the middle making sure that we don't hit any of these edges that we've just paired down to if you don't have a shoulder plane or a router plane do exactly as I said work in from all three edges and then pop a ruler on there and then use that to determine where any high spots are mark off those high spots with a pencil and then just pare them out like that so cue the cinematic cut in whatever you call it [Music] okay so I've been tweaking to finish this for the past ten minutes or so and I've just been checking it with a ruler to make sure there's no high spots on it in fact I've just actually spotted one there that's embarrassing just a tiny bit there which was preventing the ruler from touching the edge here so just get rid of that okay so let's see how these fit together so they've got face side out face side out okay pretty good so it's a little bit loose in there the shoulders are all closing up nicely it's all good along here so seeing as that's pretty loose in there what I'm going to do is glue it up we're going to plane it and then we'll see what the finished result is so here we go okay so flash forward a few days later and this is all glued up now so words note of how I glued this up it's obviously a bit of a mess at the moment but all I've got here is a clamp going this way I've got a clamp going this way so then that's pushing the shoulders into each other and then just to close any hairline gaps or something like that between the bridle joints I've got this clamp pressing the cheeks to get this so let's just end this okay so it's flush on the shoulders which is all good and that comes from marking off the same face side and face edge means that all of our error is going to be cancelled out and it's going to line up perfectly which it has got a tiny tiny step to remove there along here no gaps whatsoever which is all good that comes from paring down to that marking gauge line carefully however if you were more confident with the saw you could try and attack that but over something this sort of size I'd probably try and chisel it to be fair so anyway let's get it cleaned up and see what it looks like cleaned up okay let's Hale vise sorry if the audio is a little bit different kind of pale markers died so I'm using this box at the moment so it might sound a bit different okay so I'm very happy with that let's take a closer look at it okay so with that we'll play it up you can see that along here there is no gaps whatsoever which is all good the shoulder lines along here are looking pretty good as well no issues with those yeah just come from careful marking out and paring down to that shoulder line and you're going to get very minimal gaps if any and of course you can rely on your trusty cramps going this way and also pressing the shoulders in to get rid of any small gaps that you might have encountered and that is how you cut a bridle joint or a cooler bridle joint so take your time with it and the results will be worth it this joint looks absolutely beautiful with finish on it because of the contrast between end grain and long grain so yeah take your time get those cool it's really nice and crisp at the end of it you will be laughing so there we go I hope you found that informative useful whatever [Music]

Channel: Matt Estlea

Views: 178,598

Keywords: how to cut a bridle joint by hand, woodworking joints, woodwork, woodworking, bridle joint, hand made, woodwork by hand, tutorial, how to, craft, shoulder plane, router plane, chisel, lie nielsen, joinery, build, diy, roubo, workbench, roubo workbench, matt estlea, beginner woodwork, intermediate woodwork, advanced woodwork, rycotewood, woodworking without power tools, end grain, long grain, do it yourself, fine woodwork, furniture, cabinetmaking, furniture making, craftsman, learn

Id: A0l1ajRDnIg

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 17 2017