The flat iron bar is inlaid into the underside, to be concealed, and secured with long, countersunk wood screws. The end to end butt joint of the swan necks is also reinforced by a one inch diameter hardwood dowel, centered and penetrating more than 3″ into the end grain of each piece.

These round tenons are made by hand with a draw knife and sizing jig to fit a drilled mortise. In this piece I’ve also used free form tenon and mortise joints.

Here’s a piece clamped in the shaving horse, with the sizing jig and hand-forged drawknife in use.

The swan neck is clamped in place and both the placement of the mortise and the shoulder of the tenon are marked.

I’m using a long straight edge just to get an approximate location and length of the paired swan necks.

This round mortise is on the underside. Also visible is the dowel that goes up into the end of the arch on top.  I always use numbers, letters, arrows, etc. for replacement after repeated fittings.

Here’s #2 mortise and tenon in place. The joint is drawn tight by a concealed wood screw entering from the other side.

The slab is placed here just to check the length of the four swan necks. It seems to work, so it’s time to put the slab in the shaving horse.