Edge Jointing with Timber Dogs

Posted 20 January 2015

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Have you ever read about timber dogs, pinch dogs or nail dogs and wondered what they were and how they where used? Or maybe wondered how woodworkers jointed two pieces of wood when clamps weren’t as common. Paul shares the idiosyncrasies involved in edge jointing using these tools.

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27 Comments

  2. i seen you make some of these some time ago, i dont know why i didnt have a go at making some then, i could of done with them last week on a rustic table top repair and then filled the dog holes that are left with small wedges .

  3. Considering the price of sash clamps, these seem well worth investigating.

    I found them quite hard to search for on the internet, though. “Timber Dogs” seems to be the preferred term on Amazon and eBay, not that I found much – but there is also a breed of dog called a ‘Timber Dog’ which kind of swamps any Google search – and ‘Nail Dogs’ brings up rather a lot of vets and poodle parlours offering canine pedicures. ‘Pinch dogs’ left me rather amazed at the lengths some people go to when training a dog (spiked collars?!)

    Lee Valley seems a good source, although obviously the postage may be prohibitive for anyone not in the US.
    In the UK, I did find Rutlands.

    1. In some of his blog posts, Paul showed he made a few from tempered steel. Really seems not worth the postage if you can DIY them.

      Also like the part when Paul says “the next step is easy! ” (making the clambered edge from two straight edges) Couldn’t help thinking by myself : it’s the other way around! I can get perfect curved edges all the time, making them dead straight is what’s the major challenge. Lol

      Diego

  4. Wonderfull , thank you.
    I never exactly knew how a pinch-dog really works – and I mean -no matter its size; despite its sacrificial part – it will stil be a good -old pressing method; what about the tourniquet ? ( when cramps/clamps are not enough ?)

  10. We have these in America, though I have not tried them, nor have I seen anyone using them. I like the method because I would think it would train one to hand joint properly with more finesse. Early on, my mistakes often were overcome by forcing boards together with clamps which is, I think, a common mistake among beginning woodworkers. This also alleviates the supposed need for long jointer planes and allows again for a simple #4 stanley to be all you need for most things as Paul teaches.

  12. Nice alternate option to clamps. The holes are an issue but often they can be cut off or covered. When I run out of clamps I have used the Japanese method of wrapping the pieces tightly with slightly elastic thread. More often, when I run out of clamps, I just quit for the day.

  15. Is there a risk that the joint will eventually split at one or other end due to the tension between the two pieces? If so, would the boards be more stable by planing the edges straight and using dogs at each end and a single cramp in the middle?

    1. Hello David, the camber in the pieces is so very slight that it doesn’t create much tension, not any more than the glue has to put up with from normal expansion and contraction of the wood anyway. If the camber was too large then that may cause problems.

  16. Wow! Sat watching opened mouthed so amazed, just such a wonderful tool so clearly demonstrated.

    I had always thought edges had to be perfectly flat, hence why jointers are so commonly shown on youtube and so another piece of misinformation in my brain is corrected.

    Thank you

    1. Well, that’s what they want you to think. And also, because people are not so comfortable with their hand skills they turn to whatever they can to get results. Would is not this rigid immoveable, intolerant material (like some woodworkers can be) but more accepting and resilient, expansive, flexible and so on. just occasionally it fails us but usually because of our ignorance or over expectation.

  19. Paul I attempted to do this as you’ve said but ran into issues.
    Namely that depending on how I jointed the board and the amount of gap I left at the two ends my pinch dogs would either:
    a) split the wood (pine from Home Depot here in the Merica)
    b) would not pull together all the way and leave a very minuscule gap between the boards
    c) be impossible to get the gap closed all the way

    I tried on 4 different panels and arrived at using a method that doesn’t involve any sort of spring joint (just planing it perfectly flat/parallel to one another.) And this seemed to work quite well and the glue up seems to be holding nicely (Titebond 3).

    My timber dogs are 1 and 3/4 inch. I notice yours are much larger (looks like maybe 3 inches?).
    Could this be why I had issues?

    1. In addition, I suppose I didn’t do a micro camber wherein there is barely any camber at all. I did do one that was close enough that you could barely tell there was a gap when squeezed together at either end. But Paul your gap seems to be obvious.
      Please any input is welcome, I do like this method when I’ve ran out of clamps. Which is always. Just don’t like the slight extra bit of waste.

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