Mitered Joints

[Jerry Thompson]

My wife and I just completed a Shaker mirror. The plans/directions made no mention of splining the 45d miters. Having looked at other plans with these type of joints I see no mention of splines or other methods of strengthing the miter.
What did the Shaker's and others do in days gone by?

[Jim Matthews]

Two things - I've seen more bridle joints on panels than miters in Shaker designs.
A mirror is a modern affectation that no respectable Shaker would consider.

If you're retrofitting, you could easily overlay a spline along the back of your existing frame, without cutting into a corner.
The idea is to have a long grain glue surface across the two edges. A couple pins would hold things together until the glue dries.

[Ron Natalie]

There's a video on William Ng's website by one of his guys on building mitered mortise-and-tenon joints (or maybe that's mortise-and-tenoned mitre joints).

[James Taglienti]

Heres what i do on picture frames http://www.craftsmanspace.com/knowledge/construction-of-a-miter-joint-reinforced-with-a-feather-spline.html

[Chris Griggs]

Tom Mosers "How To Build Shaker Furniture" shows 4 types of reinforced miter joints.
1) Splined (with the spline running nearly all the way through the length of endgrain
2) Feathered - which is what James Linked to
3) Lapped miter
4) Butterfly inlayed over the miter joint

There is a mirror project in the book where he says "the miter joint can be feather, splined, or lapped". He does not comment on the extent to which any of these are historically accurate

[Ron Natalie]

I agree with Jim. You won't see a mirror or even picture frames in a real Shaker dwelling.
Traditional designs don't typically use miters at all.

[Jerry Thompson]

Thanks everyone. I have been using splines for years. It did occur to me that a mirror would be the antithesis of a Shaker's lifestyle.