What Is An Edge Joint In Woodworking? (DEFINITION & INSTRUCTION)

Working in the art industry is all about creativity and imagination; sometimes, you must break specific rules and guidelines to proceed in your path and even your passion.

As we said, sometimes you have to think out of the box. Occasionally, this kind of thinking and ideology becomes so popular that it’s no longer considered thinking out of the box; however, because the doctrine works, it doesn’t matter anymore.

One of the most outstanding examples of this statement above can be carpenters’ actions in their industry.

Imagine that you have a layer of wood and want to create a tabletop with it; however, you are most confident that this layer of wood will not be able to hold up to its reputation, which is a durable table top.

So your second alternative will be replacing that layer of wood with something different.

However, imagine you don’t have any other route available in your workshop beside the wood layers on your hand.

So the solution is to glue these pieces of wood together to create a new kind of wood that will be more durable than the last example.

This act is called edge joint in woodworking, one of the most popular actions in the woodworking industry.

Now let’s proceed into the article and see what an edge joint in woodworking is?

Why should you use each joint in woodworking?

As we mentioned in the article’s introduction, sometimes, you have to alter specific rules to create the projects you desire in the woodworking industry.

These actions are not necessarily always wrong. We mean that sometimes breaking the rules properly can improve your performance and enhance the quality of your work in every aspect possible.

One of these acts you can perform in the world of woodworking is gluing two pieces of wood together to have a new material that is more durable and thicker than the original piece you had to deal with.

This process is called edge joint in woodworking. Usually, when carpenters are trying to craft something that requires a flat surface, they use this technique and then have a piece of wood that will fulfill their duty in creating the masterpiece that the Carpenter desires.

So as you can see, using edge joints in the woodworking industry is quite helpful, so in some conditions, it would be crucial for you to use this technique.

Now that you know why you should use an edge joint in woodworking let’s see what is exactly an edge joint?

What is an edge joint?

Let’s lead with an example.

Imagine that you are trying to craft the cabinet for your bedroom, and to create this project, you will need wood pieces that are flat and plain on the surface; however, you need your wood to be in a certain thickness so it can handle the pressure that will come upon it.

Consider that you don’t have thick pieces of flat wood in your workshop. Instead, you have several thin layers of flat wood, but if you use your imagination, these flat woods will be helpful.

To get the suitable wood to craft your cabinet, you only have to glue these pieces using wood glue together and create one thick layer of flat wood.

Now we call this thinking out of the box.

If you perform this action, you will have an edge joint wood that you can use in your cabinet project, and you don’t have to worry about it collapsing anytime soon because you made it sturdier by gluing it to another piece.

However, you must remember that edge joints are not suitable for every type of wood; let us demonstrate with a graph, shall we?

Concentrated wood edge joint	Not the entire wood edge joint
It makes a durable wood	It May is not stable as much
More expensive	cheaper
Suitable for flat projects	Ideal for delicate flat projects

Now let’s see what the graph means?

We acknowledge from the graph that different woods make different edge joints; if you want to craft a piece of sturdy wood for table tops, cabinets, and even flooring, we suggest using concentrated wood. It’s more durable.

But if you intend to build a gift box and delicate projects as such, you have to use wood that is not concentrated to get the best result.

Keep in mind that in most scenarios, we use the joint edge technique to get a thicker wood piece, so the durability of our project increases.

How to make an edge joint wood?

Sometimes the only thing you need to create an edge joint is just wood glue and two pieces of wood of the same type, but sometimes, to make the structure more durable, we have to go another way.

Some edge joints are like the Mortis and Tenon, which you can read in its exclusive article; this means that you can make a joint in the sides or edges of the wood and then apply glue and connect them to get a better result.

Nevertheless, you have to observe your project and then choose the suitable method to apply the joint edge technique.

Now let’s get to the end of the article.

At last…

As you know, in the world of woodworking, you will need different types of wood for every specific project, meaning that not every wood is suitable for your workload.

This article discussed the joint edge option that will help you get a better type of wood to get an even better result.

We assure you that if you read this article with full attention, you can efficiently perform this technique and then use it for your benefit.

In the end, we are happy that this article could add to your wisdom, and if you have anything to add to the “What is edge joint in woodworking?” report, or you have any experience that you want to share with us, don’t hesitate to get in touch with us in the comment section below.