Reply To: Workbench Tenon
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If you glue a scab piece of wood to make up the missing width, I believe you can have confidence in the result.
As Sven-Olof mentioned, some of the strength comes from the tenon pressing against the walls of the mortise. In a perfect joint, the mortise mechanically (without glue) keeps the tenon from rotating within the mortise. Really, some of the strength comes from the fibers in the rail running continuously into the tenon. In your case, you will not have this for the portion where you glue on the scab. On another piece, like the small tenons in a grandfather clock door, this would matter. On this bench, though, the tenon is so wide that even the reduced-width tenon will have plenty of strength. So, even though the scab is glued to the tenon, the scab is really changing the size of the mortise to give the smaller tenon something to lever against. At least, that’s the way it seems to me.