Framed, ledge and brace gates

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Halo Jones

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Hi All,

I am making two separate garden gates of the style above. The gates are 1.8m high and approx 1m wide. I have finished all the mortice and tennon joinery and the next step is to fit the brace. I have been following the nice little book of "Doormaking and Window-making" released by Lost-Art Press. The book gives useful information on where the brace should be positioned but it does not say what kind of joinery should be used to secure it.

I don't want to use any screws or nails to secure it so I seem to have two options. The first is to use a single long length of brace m&t into the top and bottom rail and half lapped with the other two rails; or I can fit individual pieces between each of the rails m&t'd into place.

How have other folks done this? How do the pro's do it?

Thanks,

H.
 
I can't claim to have made one of these, but I too enjoy following the instructions in old books.

These pictures might help - they are from "Notes on Building Construction" published in 1875.

This diagram shows that in a simple ledged and braced door you can nail the boards to the braces,

IMG_4120_zpsvurt7sl8.jpg


But in a framed, ledged and braced door, if you want the bonus marks, stub tenon the ends of the braces as well!

IMG_4119_zpszrwqrgkb.jpg


(The owner of my copy must have been a very diligent student - the book is filled with his really neat pencil diagrams and additions to the book' s own pictures and text.)
 
Nice looking gate mseries.

Andy - I notice that the student has sketched through mortice and wedged tenons on the stiles. I refrained from doing this on my gates as I wanted to minimise end-grain exposure.

I think I will do stub tenons as I don't like the look of the notched braces. I must admit I am a bit weary of chopping the mortices as I decided to do them by hand but they are quite deep on the stiles. It gets tedious as you get to the bottom third! Still those are all done and I almost have what looks like a door/gate!
 
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