Hey Tim B.,

If your pegs do indeed tapered the entire length...then I would agree completely that besides "drawing" the joint together, your approach to pegging a joint is a combination of a "draw and wedge."

I have seen this (rarely) in some barns, and old frames where pegs that seem to have more tapper from one end to the other. Thus far, this has always been in barns and older timber frames that have either been moved or modified and not the original work.

Further, when a Pe specs a "pegged joint" they will not allow (at least never in my experience) a cross sectional peg less than the full diameter of the hole that receives it. In ever frame I have had to meet there standards on, this is always the case.

Is the joints you are producing this way "strong enough?" I would think most likely they are...Nevertheless, they are not nearly as strong as if they are pegged with a full cross sectional peg, and there is a reasonable amount of academic study on this topic. I would love to see (or read) more PE studies that reflect the contrary and what "strong enough" may actually be in some joint configurations...

As I shared in my last comment we do use...".."tapered pegs"...or..."pinned joints" that is similar to what yours is in one respect...the peg (be it square or round) is tapered from end to end. However, traditionally (and the way we still employ this pinning system)...there is not only more "offset" than typically in the hole for the "tapered peg" (wedged if you will) There are also two of them driven from either side of the joint and driven home till they fully "seat" the hole, or square mortise that receives them...