The word joint in woodworking means the place where two or more pieces of wood are fitted together, and hence the words joiner and joinery in woodworking parlance.

A The Square Or Butt Joint

B The Plain Lap Joint

C The Beveled Lap Joint

D-The Rebated Joint

E- The Tongue And Groove Joint

Fig. 3. how edge joints are made

There are two chief kinds of joints and these are, (1) where two flat surfaces are fixed to each other, and (2) where the edges of two boards meet to form a corner. Though there are many ways to make both kinds of joints I shall only tell you about half-a-dozen which you will find the most useful for your needs.

Edge Joints

There are three easy ways to make flat, or edge joints and these are (a) the square, or butt joint; (b) the lap-joint and (c) the matched joint, all of which are shown in Fig. 3.

In the square joint the edges of the boards are simply butted together and nailed, screwed or glued. This joint is very weak unless the abutting ends are fastened to something else

In the simplest form of lap-joint the edge of one board is laid on top of the other board and these are nailed or otherwise fastened together. A neater lap joint is made by cutting away half of the edge of each end of the boards so that when they are fitted and fixed together the surfaces of the boards at the joints are even and smooth.

A better joint than the lap-joint is made by planing a tongue on the edge of one board and a groove in the other. To do this easily, neatly and quickly you need a rabbet plane and as this is quite a costly tool, you can get along very well without it by using the lap-joints.

Corner Joints

There are five corner joints which you should know about and these are (a) the butt, or square joint; (b) the lap, or rebated joint; (c) the mitered corner pieced joint; (d) the common dove-tail box joint, and (e) the regular dove-tail joint, pictures of all of which are shown in Fig. 4.

Now when you can saw a board off straight, plane it true and make a good joint you will have small trouble in making anything in wood that you want to make.

Fig. 4. How Corner Joints Are Made

A-The Butt Or Square Joint

B-The Rebated Joint

C.The Mitered Corner Piece Joint

D- The Simple Box Dovetail

E- A Better Form Of Dovetail