Best miter (quality of cut)

[Dave Norris]

I've been adjusting my Dewalt MBF over the past couple weeks, and have it pretty well tuned in. The miters actually look like the grain bends around the corner. Really neat.

That got me to thinking though, if you wanted to make the absolute best quality miter, what would you use? Quantity/speed not being an issue. Not necessarily two 45's to make a 90, but perhaps any miter? Hand miter box with fine blade? Hand plane with shooting board?

Maybe a better question, is how did master furniture makers 100-200 years ago (before we had "easy perfect" gizmos) make seemingly perfect miters?

[Neal Clayton]

handsaw box with a fine blade would give the best cut, imo.

[Eric Mims]

I've had absolutely perfect results with a miter trimmer. they've been around for a long, long time.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

My Makita SCMS with a good blade. Seriously impossible to better that thing. The Felder is close though. Yes, you could do it with a shoot board and a mitre box, but it won't be better.

[Chris Friesen]

With a finely tuned tablesaw, sharp crosscut blade, and miter sled I can get pretty good results, but a miter trimmer or shooting board will give essentially perfect results.

Try tweaking by 0.001" with a power tool. It's easy with a shooting board and a hand plane.

[Doug Hepler]

Dave,

I get nearly invisible miters using a miter sled on my table saw. I'll use a shooting board once in a while if the cut is not clean enough. The miters always add up to 90 deg. http://cdhepler38.home.comcast.net/~cdhepler38/Notes/Miter%20Sled.pdf (http://cdhepler38.home.comcast.net/%7Ecdhepler38/Notes/Miter%20Sled.pdf)

Doug
(http://cdhepler38.home.comcast.net/%7Ecdhepler38/Notes/Miter%20Sled.pdf)

[Jeff Willard]

Handplane and shooting board. Or a miter trimmer. Nothing else comes close.