Hand Tools for Mortise-and-Tenon Joinery — What You Need and How to Use It

In this next article in our hand-tool woodworking series, I’m sharing a step-by-step guide to making a mortise-and-tenon joint together with a checklist of the essential hand tools.
In a previous post — Basic Woodworking Tools — Where to Begin? — I outlined a practical starter kit. Can you cut mortise-and-tenon with that kit? Yes — but a few add-ons will make the work faster, cleaner, and more enjoyable. Let’s start from the beginning.

What Is a Mortise-and-Tenon Joint?

It’s one of the oldest and strongest woodworking joints — largely forgotten in industrial production. That’s a pity, because it embodies what’s best in traditional woodworking: durability and timelessness.
Use mortise-and-tenon in frame, case, and skeleton constructions. In furniture built around true joinery (mortise-and-tenon or dovetails), the joint carries the loads; glue mainly stabilizes the assembly. In cost-driven modern manufacturing the opposite often happens — glue bears the load, which is why joints crack in low-quality furniture.

Anatomy of the Joint

A tenon (tongue) fits into a mortise (hole) in the mating piece. Tenons may be integral (through or blind) or loose (floating); here we focus on an integral (own) tenon cut from the same workpiece.

Step-by-Step: How to Cut Mortise-and-Tenon by Hand

Step 1 — Layout (marking)

Mark both the mortise and the tenon. You’ll use a combination square, marking knife, and a wheel marking gauge (all discussed in the previous article).
If the rail must meet the stile at an angle other than 90°, add an adjustable try square.

Photo 1. Layout tools

Step 2 — Chop the mortise

Match chisel width to the intended mortise width, or size the mortise to a chisel you already own. As a rule of thumb, I make the tenon thickness ≈ 1/3 of the thinner member, which also sets the mortise width.
You can chop mortises with a bench chisel or a dedicated mortise chisel (“pigsticker”). I mostly use bench chisels and keep a narrower chisel on hand to clear chips quickly.

Photo 4. Chopping with a guide to keep walls parallel to the stock edge

Photo 5. Chisels for the job — precision bench chisel (not for heavy mortising), bench chisel, mortise chisel

Step 3 — Shoulder relief on the tenon

Create the marking shoulders. You can do it all with chisels, start with chisels and finish with a saw, or — if you’re confident — saw right to the line. Wider chisels speed things up and increase accuracy.
If budget allows, add a dedicated crosscut backsaw for shoulders; otherwise a rip backsaw will do.

Step 4 — Saw the cheeks

Rip the waste along the tenon cheeks with a backsaw with a taller plate for better tracking.

Photo 6. Sawing the tenon

Step 5 — Fit the tenon to the mortise

The router plane is the most precise way to true cheeks to final thickness — it’s my recommended add-on. It also unlocks many other precision tasks in future projects.
You can fit entirely with chisels (cheaper, more demanding, very satisfying) or even make a wooden router plane from spare parts and a cutter.

Step 6 — Clean up the shoulders

Refine the shoulder rebates with flat bench chisels.

Example tool set for an ~8 mm tenon & mortise (see checklist below)

Recommended Hand Tools (Essentials + Smart Add-ons)

Layout & measuring

• Combination square (e.g., Stanley 0-46-151) — true it on day one; 20 minutes of work.
• Marking knife (e.g., Stanley 0-10-598; re-sharpenable blades).
• Wheel marking gauge (Veritas / Dictum).
• Adjustable try square (for non-90° layouts).

Chisels

• Bench chisels (e.g., Narex — excellent value; ~5-piece set around 220 PLN).
• Mortise chisel (optional but robust for heavy chopping).
• Starter sizes: ~6, 12, 20, 26 mm (or similar).

Saws

• Backsaw (tenon saw) — start with rip; >6–8 TPI can serve early crosscuts.
• Crosscut backsaw (add later for shoulders).
• Fret/scroll saw + Pegas #5 blades (optional; clean tracking).

Planes

• Smoother No. 4 (first plane), add No. 6 later for longer reference.
• Router plane — precision fitting of cheeks/tenons and many joinery tasks.

Workholding & guides

• Mortise guide (shop-made) to keep mortise walls parallel to the reference edge.
• Try square / small engineer’s square for shoulder checks.
• Clamps (light assembly + long/reversible or pipe clamps).

Sharpening

• Diamond plates (fastest) or water stones 600 / 1,000 / 3,000 (+8,000 later).
• Honing guide (from simple types to Veritas MK II).

Budget notes:
– Veritas 100 mm (4″) deep-plate backsaws are versatile but pricier; I choose the largest because it covers diverse tasks.
– Router plane: Veritas metal is the most affordable among new metal options; wooden (Ulmia, E.C.E.) can be cheaper.
– Used tools can be great value — just buy carefully (no guarantee, inspect condition).
– Calibrate budget squares; sharp, well-set tools beat fancy brands that aren’t tuned.

Why Mortise-and-Tenon Is Worth Your Time

Because precision joinery outlasts glue-and-screw construction. Invest in layout accuracy first; then add time-saving hand tools (router plane, deep-plate backsaw) as your projects scale. Your craftsmanship — not the sticker price of the tool — determines the outcome.

I look forward to your comments.
Tom