Graphical Construction Glossary >> Woodwork. >> Joints >> Mitre Joint

Mitre Joint

A joint between two members at an angle to each other. Each piece is cut to exactly half of the joining angle. Mostly the angle is 90 degrees so each piece is cut at 46 degrees.

Also on this page:-

End Mitre, Face Mitre, Rebated Mitre, Tongued Mitre, Bastard Mitre

Above is a common miter joint made as an external corner on skirting or baseboard. It is known as an End Mitre . Typically these joints in the past have been made with home made mitre boxes When the timber is not too deep they can be cut in a vertical orientation with a standard power mitre saw.
When the section is quite deep then these end miters can be cut with a compound miter saw lying flat on the saw base..

At the right there are a more versions of the same thing. If these joints are used say in framing cupboards and if there is room for glue blocks without them being seen, then I personally always use them for extra strength. Long joints like this are notoriously hard to fix and keep looking good, so a little extra effort is always a good thing.

Above are two other traditional ways of strengthening long edge miters, The loose Tongued Mitre and the Rebated Mitre.. Also there is a sturdy miter joint that has the apearance of a normal joint on the outside, but it has a mortise and tennon internally.

In modern joinery both of these joints can be made easier by using biscuit joints.

Above are examples of a Face Mitre. That is the face of the stock rather then the edge is mitered. You can see two of them on the carved English Oak architaves and two on the door panel mouldings. The photo was taken at the Greenwich Maritime Museum, London UK.

By far the most obvious of mitre joints, they are open to inspection as architraves around door frames and picture frames etc.

A Bastard Mitre is old usage for any mitre that different from the common 90 degrees turn one.

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