Tool of the Month July 2017

Welcome to July's Tool of the Month blog post! This month I'll take a quick look at the joinery float!

The joinery float!

So what is a joinery float? Well basically it's a type of file designed for cutting wood, used to clean up and adjust the insides of mortises, and that's about it really!

Showing the teeth.

The float has teeth angled to cut in one direction only, they can be resharpened very easily with a fine metal file. I use mine to square up and tweak the ends of mortises, which tend to be a bit more awkward to adjust with a chisel (which will try and follow the grain).

There are wider floats available which can be used to adjust the sides of mortises and can be used to flatten the faces of tenons too.

Plane makers floats are another type available, these are used to produce wooden hand planes, particularly handy for shaping the mortice in the body where the blade sits.

That's it for July, it's been another very busy month of catching up in the workshop, August is looking to be even busier!

Look out for next months blog post coming soon.