Quick Poll

You see the middle part in this joint, right?

Not the two elements with mortises in them.. the thing in between them? That joins them together once you glue and clamp it?

It’s an interesting way to join two boards without creating an integral tenon on one of them.

But, what do you call it? I’ve seen woodworkers get worked up about different terms for it. They will argue their point all day long that a certain term applies, and none of the other make sense.

So, what do you call it in your shop?

7 thoughts on “Quick Poll”

  1. Its funny how when we get out teeth into something like a term we are so unwilling to compromise, and are so will to argue. Sometimes we are more like old dogs with a bone than we want to admit. Personally I like the generic term of the whichamajiger for everything it adds a bit of mystery and adventure to my life.

  2. I have always heard and used the term floating tenon. They were in use long before Dominos came out. Dominos is a game played with tiles with dots on them,. Since most of us work alone it doesn’t matter what you call it as there is no one there to hand it to you anyway.

  3. I see a lot of the elderly Cuban gentlemen playing dominoes out in the parks over in Tampa… Do you think they may be woodworkers? 🙂

  4. I use the term ‘floating tenon’. Anything that uses the term ‘loose’ reminds me of my early projects.

    That said ‘loose’ seems more correct than ‘floating’, since the tenon is never really floating.

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