mortise wall

[bscofield]

What's the thinnest you'd be comfortable making a mortise wall on a healthy piece of briar?

[KurtHuhn]

What's the thinnest you'd be comfortable making a mortise wall on a healthy piece of briar?

That depends?

If the grain runs along the shank, 1/8" minimum. Hell, even an 1/8" might give me pause. If it's cross-grained, you can go a little thinner - sometimes.

If the goal is to make a pencil-shanked pipe, I usually go for a smaller mortis/tenon - 1/4" usually.

[bscofield]

What's the thinnest you'd be comfortable making a mortise wall on a healthy piece of briar?

That depends?

If the grain runs along the shank, 1/8" minimum. Hell, even an 1/8" might give me pause. If it's cross-grained, you can go a little thinner - sometimes.

If the goal is to make a pencil-shanked pipe, I usually go for a smaller mortis/tenon - 1/4" usually.

1/4" is my standard right now... What's your's? I need to increase the size of my draught hole, which i've done a few times now but I'm not sure that it's safe at 1/4". Is 5/32" safe on a 1/4" tenon?

[KurtHuhn]

I normally use a 5/16" tenon. That seems to work the best for me, and give me the most room to play with regards to moving the drill bit around to ensure it falls dead center in the bottom of the mortis.

I use 5/32" airways on 1/4" tenons all the time. Never a problem.

[LexKY_Pipe]

I agree with Kurt. I've tried differnt size tenons, and a 5/16 gives me a good blend of size and strength and plenty of room to hit the air hole dead on.