i made a tutorial about cutting a double bridle joint a few years ago but since the audience has grown quite a bit since then and because this is a great joint that also teaches some important lessons about table saw joinery i thought i'd show you again i begin by laying out my joint on the ends of my work piece sometimes i use tape so i can see my lines better especially on the darker wood i also like to color the waist areas in between so i'm not confused while i cut the joint these fingers can't be sewn back on if you cut them off at the table saw a double bridle joint is essentially five fingers or tenons that mesh together some folks have told me that it looks a little bit like a box joint and if all the fingers are the same thickness as these are you could cut this with a box joint jig but the nice thing about a double bridle joint is you can vary the width of some of the fingers changing the spacing to create a more attractive appearance you couldn't do that with most finger joint jigs so i'm going to show you how to do this with a simple tenon jig that just slips over your table saw fence there's not much to this jig you could easily make one to fit over your own fence but if you don't have a tenon jig already i recommend building the more advanced one that i designed and for which i have plans on my website that one has an incremental positioner and micro adjust features and it makes it useful for all sorts of interesting tasks if you're going to build a tenant jig why not build a tenon jig am i right i'll link to those plans and a video about it below this video you'll also need a table saw blade with a flat grind on the teeth you could use just one of your blades from your dado set if it's thin enough but it's worth investing in a good rip blade with flat ground teeth because that blade will be very useful for all sorts of table saw joinery as well as ripping thick stock more efficiently so i'll link to my favorite below as well as i work pay attention to the order of the cuts these are not arbitrary there is a reason for each step in this process and you're going to see it all come together at the end i'll start with the double tendon piece to avoid confusion we'll call that piece which in this case is made of walnut the style i set the jig to cut a kerf pretty much right down the center on this first cut i'm also sneaking up the blade to the proper height i don't want to crank it all the way up before i start it's better to raise it a little bit at a time taking a couple extra passes until the curve touches on my pencil baseline once i get the correct height set i rotate my work to piece 180 degrees and i make another pass this will widen the curve while keeping it centered on the end of the work piece if it's not wide enough yet i move the jig a tiny bit closer to the blade and i repeat the process since we called the first part the style we'll call the maple piece which has three tenons a rail on this i'll cut both slots at the same time i make one cut then i rotate the work piece 180 degrees and i make another then i move the jig a bit to repeat the same cut rotate cut process we're sneaking up on the fit while keeping the two slots evenly spaced right now i'm just eyeballing the fit between the center tenon on the rail and the slot on the end of my style when it looks good i'm ready to move to the next step i'm moving back to my style now and i'm starting from the outside i do the same cut rotate and cut process working my way inward as i get close to my pencil lines i start checking the fit if it's too tight i go back to the jig and i shave a tiny bit more off both sides until i sneak up on that perfect fit and after a little sanding you have a great looking joint that you could even shape or round over if you like now why did i switch back and forth between the rail and the style instead of cutting one half of the joint at a time using my pencil marks as my guide because i don't trust my pencil marks if you want a perfect joint you have to custom fit it as you work pencil marks are an important guide but they're no substitute for sneaking up on the proper fit and this process provides the best path to that goal keep these principles in mind because you didn't just learn to cut a double bridal joint today you learn some important skills that you can apply to other table saw tasks don't forget to check out those links below and we'll see you next time we use blade guards and push sticks and safety glasses and hearing protection to keep us safe because we want to enjoy this craft for many years to come but what about our lungs i like trend stealth masks because they have silicone bodies that fully seal on my face this is important to me because a leaky mask is a useless mask the original stealth features a compact size easily adjustable dual straps for a proper fit on your face a downward facing exhale valve that won't fog your glasses and replaceable n100 filters the stealth light looks like an ordinary disposable mask but it features the same silicone seals an advanced head strap system and a downward facing exhale valve the 0.3 micron filter is replaceable as well i switched to trend stealth masks for my dusty work a couple years ago because they offer the advanced protection of a larger canister respirator in a less cumbersome size that's comfortable to wear all day long check them out at the link below the video
