Drawboring pegs?

[Mike Holbrook]

I have several projects that use drawbored pegs for various joints. I have drawbore pins and just ordered the Lee Valley set for making imperial dowels. The information i have read suggests splitting small pieces along the grain line to use for these pins. My question has to do with species of wood that are appropriate to make these pins from. Is it best to search out straight grained pieces of hardwood of specific species to use for these or is it acceptable to use scraps from the project at hand. I wonder if there would be enough difference in various wood shrinkage/hardness to make a particular wood peg type incompatible with whatever project wood I am using? Would a wood like white oak be acceptable to make pegs from for most projects? I have a rough block of Ash, just not sure if I can find any straight grain in it. I suppose one can split most wood in whatever direction the wood grain moves in and wind up with relatively straight grain.

Watching Kingshotts DVD on making mortises and tenons, he mentions that one of the first jobs for any apprentice use to be to keep a supply of drawbore pins available for all the woodworkers. This comment and the relatively sturdy looking large oak drawbore pin he shows from, HMS Victory, got me thinking about laying in a supply of pins for projects. In his video Frank Klausz whittles his drawbore pin by hand with a chisel in about 15 seconds.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I'll let others with more experience comment on the suitability of various woods.

Straight grain seems most important, in experience, to make a peg that will drive in without splitting. The more your offset is, the more this is important. When a peg splits on it's way in, it quickly becomes a hassle, particularly if you have a blind hole.

The other thing I've heard is that you're peg should be the driest stock in the project - that way the other wood shrinks around the peg, rather than the peg shrinking, a similar concept to chair legs in seats, I suppose. Although with the offset in the holes, I doubt the peg would fall out entirely.

For tiny tiny drawbores, I've used bamboo skewers or chopsticks, but finding a good one (one that's straight enough it's not going to break in insertion) can be tough.

Depending on how touch the wood you're drawboring is in comparison to the wood of the pegs, having perfectly made dowels is less important - using oak pegs in my poplar bench base, the pegs deformed the wood to fit, so as long as my holes weren't larger than the dowels, having round dowels didn't matter as much.

[Hilton Ralphs]

I recall that white oak is what the old timers used.

Take a good read at Peter Follansbee's Blog on drawboring.

[Mike Holbrook]

Good link Hilton, lots of pictures of old pins in actual joints. The blogger seems to feel that exact shape is not as important as the peg filling the entire hole, preferably on both sides of a through joint. Unfortunately most of these illustrations are of joints made with older tools than I have. I think some of the splits he shows are due to edges of pegs catching in corners left by older bits. It may be that more exactly made holes and pegs will tend to cause splitting even more, like a round awl splitting thin wood worse than a birdcage awl. I'm still trying to get these ideas inGRAINed in my head so I don't wind up causing splits along my grain lines.

Maybe I need to hunt up some straight grained white oak and make a supply. Making the pegs in advance should give them time to get good and dry before they are used.

[Hilton Ralphs]

If you have a dowel maker (Veritas or LN) or a piece of steel that you can drill a hole through it, then perhaps just make up a batch of round pegs.

[Trevor Walsh]

I've used red Oak, and Ash for pins. In my workbench, bed head and foot boards and for some other random odd drawbored joints. First I split out the rough pegs as squares a little oversized and whittle an end to a point. Then I beat them through the dowel plate to get a peg. It is important that they are dry. The properties I'd identify as useful in a wood are strong in shear, able to be driven (aka not maple), straight even grained, no knots and dry. Any of the oaks, ash, beech, dogwood, birch, hickory would probably do fine. I know in timber framed construction oak is used almost exclusively.

[Trevor Walsh]

You want the wood dry, BEFORE it is turned into a peg, otherwise the peg will be smaller than it's supposed to be. If you're desiring 3/8" pegs and have green or slightly dry wood I'd split out billets about 1/2 to 9/16 square, let them dry then process them into pegs.

[Chris Vandiver]

I've used red Oak, and Ash for pins. In my workbench, bed head and foot boards and for some other random odd drawbored joints. First I split out the rough pegs as squares a little oversized and whittle an end to a point. Then I beat them through the dowel plate to get a peg. It is important that they are dry. The properties I'd identify as useful in a wood are strong in shear, able to be driven (aka not maple), straight even grained, no knots and dry. Any of the oaks, ash, beech, dogwood, birch, hickory would probably do fine. I know in timber framed construction oak is used almost exclusively.

The best wood for pegs in timber framing are Black Locust.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

I've wondered, dealing with the small amounts of wood one is for pegs in drawbores, if it's the sort of thing we could "kiln dry" in a home oven or something?

[Mel Fulks]

I worked three years for a guy who has a well deserved reputation in historic restoration,all of our doors were mortise and tenon (no glue) and pegged with lopsided octagonal pegs. But he would NOT USE A DRAWBORE ! We had to clamp them! He never had any problem with my work EXCEPT my pegs were always too lop sided or too symmetrical ! I'm a failure.

[Chuck Nickerson]

I've wondered, dealing with the small amounts of wood one is for pegs in drawbores, if it's the sort of thing we could "kiln dry" in a home oven or something?

What I've done (in the three whole projects that I drawbored) was to run the peg stock through a dowel plate hole one size too large, dry it in a toaster oven, then run the peg through the final hole. I did this just before assembly. Worked great for me.

[Kurt Cady]

In my bench I used oak dowels. Just picked the straightest grain. I think I used 1/2". No failures

[Mike Holbrook]

Good ideas guys. The Lee Valley dowel making kit looks like a great, easy way to make dowels/pegs. The kit has a plate that fits over a dog hole on a bench and accepts a multitude of different diameter A2 steel inserts. Mine is on the way so I will have the chance to try it out soon.

I think I will shop around in the shorts at my wood supplier the next time I get out there and see if I can find boards with straight grain that I can saw pieces from to split. Maybe I can locate a few lighter and darker woods so the pegs will match project woods better.

The toaster oven sounds like a great way to make sure the peg shrinks less than the wood around it, just don't alert my wife about this one.

[Jeff Bartley]

I use our regular oven to dry peg stock, set at it's lowest temp (160). After a couple hours in there I wax them, let them cool, then put them in a sealed jar so they don't absorb any moisture. When I did timber frame work pegs were always stored in a sealed plastic bag.
And I can add that there's nothing like driving a drawbore peg into a joint and watching it the shoulders draw in.....it's usually my favorite part of a project!

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

And I can add that there's nothing like driving a drawbore peg into a joint and watching it the shoulders draw in.....it's usually my favorite part of a project!

True that! The first time I did it, I thought the joints were good, but that slight pulling made things perfect!