fastening end grain and face grain

[paul wiser]

am making cutting boards (small) that i want to put a contrasting wood on either end to set it off. most ones that i have seen use dowels to hold it together. one glued in and the others left unglued for expansion and contraction. hope i made myself clear. :eek: thanks

[Rob Luter]

Why not use a pegged mortise and tenon approach similar to the top of this Stickley table?

http://st.hzcdn.com/simgs/8fa168990239adc3_4-1753/traditional-side-tables-and-end-tables.jpg

[Michelle Rich]

seems like a bad idea to me..water will get between the joint, and expand the wood. ..if the board is a wall hnger, well it might work, but if used and washed a lot, it will surely fail

[Bernie LeBlanc]

Michele is correct - not a good idea around water. Another issue is that endgrain does not glue well. If you still want to go ahead, at least use some kind of joinery to assemble your board. That mortise is a good example. I prefer to use breadboard like your design, but I tough and groove them like a mortise and tenon and I glue the middle only (about 1/3rd of the length. I also make it a blind younger so you can not see its ends.

[John TenEyck]

If you mean breadboad type ends, it will work fine if you install it like they are done. Pegged M&T with oversized slots in the outer tenons to allow for seasonal expanions/contraction.

John