Characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of tenon-mortise structure of ancient building wood in China

China's tenon and mortise structure is exquisite and magical. A few simple tenons can give rise to various complex mortises and mortises. Through research, it has been proved that the tenon-mortise structure includes long and short tenons, wedge tenons, hanging tenons, oblique tenons, chuck tenons, dovetail joint tenons, lattice tenons, brown tenons, open tenons, stuffy tenons, through tenons and shoulder tenons. Traditional furniture in China is made up of these tenons and mortises. Tenon and mortise structure is the core of China furniture, also known as traditional furniture.

Advantages of tenon-mortise structure:

First, the combination of tenon and mortise structure is a clever combination of more and less, high and low, long and short pieces of wood. This combination can effectively limit the distortion between wooden pieces in all directions. Nail connection can't be done. For example, if nails are used to make a T-shaped combination of two wooden roofs, the vertical roof and the horizontal roof are easy to distort and change their angles, but tenons and mortises will not distort.

Second, metals are prone to rust or oxidation, while real mahogany furniture can be used for hundreds or thousands of years. Many Ming style furniture has a history of hundreds of years. Despite the vicissitudes of life, the wood is as hard as ever. If such furniture is combined with nails, it is likely that the wood will be intact, but the furniture will fall apart due to corrosion, fatigue and aging of the connecting metal.

Third, furniture with tenon-mortise structure is easy to transport. Many mahogany furniture is disassembled and transported, so it is very convenient to assemble and install it at the destination. If the furniture is connected by nails, it can be partially disassembled, but this cannot be done for furniture with many pieces in Xiao Mu, such as chairs.

Fourth, furniture with mortise and tenon structure is easy to maintain. Pure mahogany furniture can be used for hundreds of years, and there will always be problems, such as a broken brick that needs to be replaced. Nail-connected furniture is not as easy to disassemble and replace as mortise-and-tenon furniture.

Fifth, tenons and mortises are of high quality. Mahogany wood is hard, and pushing nails in by squeezing and drilling hard wedges can easily lead to wood splitting, which carpenters know very well. Using mortise and tenon to connect mahogany furniture can greatly improve the internal quality of mahogany furniture, which is also an important reason why mahogany furniture made by traditional technology has value-added collection value.

Disadvantages of using tenon-mortise structure:

Most mortises and tenons are difficult to be mechanically formed by simple molds, and it takes some time for experienced carpenters to do it well, which leads to increased costs. Tenons and mortises need high hardness or material value, either as hard as mahogany or as good as Jin Sinan. Therefore, only expensive mahogany furniture can retain these skills.

Further reading: tenon and mortise, a thousand-year-old stunning Chinese beauty