Using toxic chemicals to glue things together, the humble peg's role in a mortice and tenon joint seems pertinent. How long have past generations built dwellings with timber frames, with enclosed mortice and tenon joints, locked by pegs?
 
At a time when there still existed many strands of hominid the earliest evidence for simple woodworking, so far, has been found in Zambia, 20,000 generations ago in 470,000BCE. The earliest evidence for the simpler tusk tenon is 19,700 generations later, forming a well near Leipzig in 5,000BCE. The tusk tenon joint can still be seen in the floor construction of 20th century houses at each end of the binder supporting the leading edge of a fireplace hearth. The next advance came with the Phoenicians whose shipbuilders invented the structural enclosed mortice and tenon joint, locked with a peg, 80 generations ago in around 2000BCE, which was then reused by the Greeks and Romans.
 
Pegs are made from various species of tree, oak being the most common. David Ackers of antique oak dealers BCA in France has some made from sweet chestnut. Roofer Karl Terry says the short square pegs used to fix Kent peg tiles were always made from softwood. Old oak floorboards dealer Jon Webb in the south of France has a collection of new octagonal, hexagonal, and square section pegs. He has also seen acacia pegs and even some made from woody plant stems.
 
Henry Russell is renowned in the framing world for reviving many of the lost art and tools of the hand-working of beams, as well as pegs. He said, "Most people split pegs using a froe and a mallet. Once these green billets are roughly square, they can be shaved on a shaving horse with a draw knife to taper them and make them octagonal or even round. Some people knock billets through a sharpened pipe ... a very boring technique, I think, and also in my experience, quite wasteful. I've never seen any evidence that historic pegs were knocked through a die. However, when one looks at many old pegs with a torch and magnifying glass, it is clear that many of them were simply hatcheted out. The small axe work gives clear curving signature marks … unlike drawknives, which tend to get pulled in a straight line. So, I think hatchets and small side axes were the most common tool in the past. Most modern timber framers use draw knifed pegs."
 
English terms used:
Beadle - old English, meaning 'messenger with authority', a dense piece of wood used as a mallet with the froe
Cleave - heavy clay, meaning now is similar to rive, except rive and riven are older
Froe - a flat transverse blade used for splitting the peg blanks
Rive - norse, meaning 'to tear apart'; a riven peg
 
French terms
Cheville en chêne - oak peg
Le tenon at la mortaise - mortice and tenon joint, the genders explain the function, the male 'tenon' sticks out and is received by the female 'mortaise'. Tenon derives from the French verb 'tenir', to pull. Is this because the oak peg pulls the tenon into the mortice?
 
Coyle Timber in Bath makes oak framing pegs, riven with the grain and hand tapered with an octagonal section. 'We have had them tested at our local university and they have the strength to hold one tonne per square inch. Our pegs are used in the construction of beautiful green oak frame buildings, and we supply varying sizes to fit in holes between 12mm and 25mm, the most common being 19mm by 300mm in length. We commonly supply them for historic restoration. The largest pegs we supplied were for restoration work at Stirling Castle – they were made to fit in a 40mm hole and they were 900mm in length!'
 
Carpenter Oak's blog writes, 'If you are wondering why pegs are not produced by a machine it is because at present there is no machine able to produce this style of peg. Octagonal and tapered in their shape they are not easy for a machine to replicate. A machine is able to make a round un-tapered dowel and maybe the octagonal shape could be reproduced but octagonal and tapered is more difficult. It is crucial that the pegs are split out with the grain, you could saw them all up but you would have short grain, leaving the pegs weak and prone to breaking.'
 
It seems to be 'known' that riving wood makes for a more durable product than sawing it. Some people, mostly shingle-makers, say that splitting wood maintains the integrity of the tubular nature of the wood which slows losses of internal moisture and its preservative lignin through evaporation. It also slows the introduction of parasitic moulds, fungi and insects through the sawn tube ends.
 
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From the archives … 30 years ago:
 
SalvoNEWS 83 - February 1994
According to a little sign at the Weald & Downland Museum there are two types of cleft oak pegs – Round & Tapered and Square. The sign says: 'Round pegs are used for mortice and tenon type joints which are draw-bored. This entails boring the holes through the mortice and tenon slightly out of line, so that driving a tapered peg through draws the joint together. Square pegs are used to secure lap joints and halving joints, the hole being bored through the assembled joint and the peg driven home. The corners of the peg bite into the hole, ensuring a tight fit.'
Peter Barker at Antique Buildings in Surrey, has a slightly different view. Octagonal tapered pegs are most often found in old frame structures, whether for draw joints or lap joints. He has not come across the W&D Museum’s finding in the pegs of 17th-19th century frame structures in his long (some would say too long) experience in the field. Can anyone verify the Weald & Downland experience? Opinions requested.
 
SalvoNEWS letters
Peter Barker, Surrey
23rd March 1994
Dear Hazel & Thornton,
Opinions required on Oak Pegs (SN83)
Well you’re not going to believe this (we don’t – ed) but there I was sitting in my little retreat at the end of the garden, with door open letting the spring sun brown my knees, feeling at one with the world and ruminating on square pegs and octagonal pegs and how peaceful life was in the olde worlde building business back in the seventies when – you’re definitely not going to believe this – but I reached over to tear a half sheet of the latest 'Almost Weekly SalvoNews' from the hook when what should I see? Yes ... you were discussing these very subjects ...
You will be intrigued to know that we, as yet, have found no evidence to contradict my experience that tapered octagonal pegs are used for almost all joints (in our timber framed buildings in the South East of England) and most certainly not just for ‘draw bored’ joints. We do find that square pegs are used predominantly for lap and halving joints (typically in sill beams) and for securing peg tiles.
Rightly or wrongly I have decided to hang on in the business for a few more years to carry on the research – it’s also still quite fun! We’re involved in some magnificent projects – which I might(!) just tell you about.
Kind regards, Peter Barker
Antique Buildings Ltd, Dunsfold
 
*Dear Peter, many thanks for the informed opinion on pegs. Maybe it will stimulate others from oak frame areas. You may be interested to know that the soya inks with which we print SalvoNews are indeed sphincter-friendly but could we have more detail about your rumination technique? Is it an arrestable offence for instance, and do you do it with both octagonal and square pegs at the same time or individually? – Ed.
 
We contacted Mr. Barker before reprinting. He added the following comment on 25 March 2024:
 
'Since 1994, my opinions on the subject haven't changed. I'm not sure that our experience differs from The Weald & Downland Museum's findings - only that their terminology is misleading. The 'Round' pegs used in timber framing are not actually round but loosely octagonal. 'Round' pegs were never used as they would bind in their holes - there needs to be something to give and to bite to give a tight fit. We have had cases of amateur framers actually making their pegs round and having problems. Pegs are always driven in from the joint side of a timber ie, the side where the joint is closest to the face - in the case of an exterior wall frame, this is always the outside face - the added benefit being that this will prevent rainwater ingress. I'm hugely relieved(!) to hear that your ink was bottom friendly - who else but Salvo! It could have been the writing on the... er... wall!'