Skip to content

Tusk tenon

joints.tusk_tenon

A tusk tenon with the wedge parallel to the stile: a knock-down joint of a workbench stretcher through a leg, the wedge upright.

A 45 x 120 mm stretcher goes through a 70 mm square leg with a 90 x 25 mm tenon (15 mm shoulders at the edges, 10 at the faces), its end chamfered, standing 60 mm proud. A 10 mm thick wedge, 150 mm long and 25 wide at its head, tapered 1:10 at its back edge, is driven down through a mortise from the top edge of the tenon to its bottom edge, bearing on the outer face of the leg and pulling the shoulders tight; knocked up, it frees the stretcher.

Tusk tenon, assembled

Tusk tenon, exploded

Parameters

Parameter Default
leg_length 500
stretcher_length 400
width 120
protrusion 60

Change them in a design file (see Change an example):

from woodwright.examples import joints

design = joints.tusk_tenon(leg_length=625)

Drawings

The plans in one PDF: plans.pdf.

Assembly

assembly

Parts

parts

Leg

leg

Stretcher

stretcher

Wedge

wedge

Cut list

leg        500 x 70 x 70 mm  oak
           - through mortise 90 x 25 mm in back_edge
stretcher  530 x 120 x 45 mm  oak
           - tenon 90 x 25 mm, 130 long, end chamfered 2 mm, on left_end
           - wedge mortise 10 x 25 to 16 mm through the tenon on left_end, its outer end sloped 1:10, from 3 inside leg.front_edge
wedge      150 x 25 x 10 mm  oak
           - taper 15 mm on back_edge towards right_end

Code

From woodwright/examples/joints.py, which imports the names it uses (see From an example to your own design):

def tusk_tenon(
    leg_length: float = 500,
    stretcher_length: float = 400,
    width: float = 120,
    protrusion: float = 60,
) -> Assembly:
    """A tusk tenon with the wedge parallel to the stile: a knock-down joint
    of a workbench stretcher through a leg, the wedge upright.

    A 45 x 120 mm stretcher goes through a 70 mm square leg with a 90 x 25
    mm tenon (15 mm shoulders at the edges, 10 at the faces), its end
    chamfered, standing 60 mm proud. A 10 mm thick wedge, 150 mm long and
    25 wide at its head, tapered 1:10 at its back edge, is driven down
    through a mortise from the top edge of the tenon to its bottom edge,
    bearing on the outer face of the leg and pulling the shoulders tight;
    knocked up, it frees the stretcher.
    """
    return _tusk_tenon(
        "tusk_tenon",
        leg_length,
        stretcher_length,
        width,
        protrusion,
        tenon_thickness=25,
        wedge_head="right_end",
        wedge_size=(150, 25, 10),
        wedge_slope=10,
    )

Exported with woodwright 0.9.0 on 2026-10-25.