Wood biscuits - you might not find them on your dinner table, but for a woodworker, they can be almost as important as the food. In a nutshell, wood biscuits are oval shaped discs that woodworkers insert using a special tool called a biscuit joiner. The biscuits are designed to take the place of old fashioned wooden pegs, and they are more durable and easier to use.
Using Wood Biscuits in Woodworking Projects
Sometimes, in woodworking, two pieces of wood are simply joined together using a coating of wood glue. This is fine and dandy, but in some cases, it is not enough. Wood glue won't work if the two pieces of wood need to bend on an angle, and the wood glue won't stand the test of time on a piece that is going to get heavy use. So while wood glue is perfect for woodworking projects that are decorative, when undertaking a functional wooded project, like the building of furniture, wood glue alone is not good enough to get the job done.
For sturdier work, you need wood biscuits. Wooden pegs were used in early woodworking to join two pieces of wood, but these could be difficult to work with. The pegs and the holes were cut at different times, meaning that they often didn't fit quite right. Further, unless you had a lot of time on your hands to cut pegs for every project, you have to buy them pre-cut, which means you had to waste valuable time trying to cut holes to match the pegs - holes that might have to be made bigger that you had envisioned them because you could only find large pegs. Last but not least, while wood pegs were stronger than plain old wood glue, they still could give up under every day wear and tear, which is a big problem for functional woodworking projects.
Wood biscuits address this problem. First of all, they make putting the two pieces of wood together much easier. The so called biscuit joiner cuts the hole in your board exactly to match the biscuit is it is going to join, so there is no more fiddling trying to get things to match up just right. All you have to do then in push the two pieces of wood together so that the biscuit joins them both and you are all set.
The additional bonus of going with biscuits is that they are significantly stronger than both glue and pegs. If you are building furniture in particular, wood biscuits are must have woodworking tools. Your woodworking projects will be easier to build and will last longer with wood biscuits.
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