Hello,

Now, the shape of the peg in cross-section, that is whether it is round or faceted is interesting and up to now I have always taken it as a matter of preference, regional practices, or in the case of restoration, reproduction. Personally I do like a faceted peg because my sense is they drive more readily, but OK. Still, I think tapering it is ill suited to the purpose, my skew on that being clear by now. Though I do wonder at the loss of long grain in a machine made and tapered insert. It seems like really provoking the shear problem.

Reasonable compression of the tenon hole would not normally be a disadvantage, and that blow out at the relish is not only a matter of over stressing the hole in the tenon, but the fit of the tenon in the mortice in the height. A poor fit will allow the tenon to spread outwards and the only release will be out the back end so a wobbly fit comes at the expense of the draw allowance you can afford. You can put a clamp on a small piece of wood and drive a hell of a nail in at right angle and when the clamp is released the wood fibers will still be intact and stay that way. It also begs the question of the placement of the peg hole(s). I truly try to minimize the distance from the shoulder certainly not more than 1/4 of the length of the tenon. But yeah, taking it easy is key as well.

Greetings,

Don Wagstaff