Finger joint

A method of joining two pieces of wood together.  A finger joint is stronger than a simple butt joint because there is more surface area for the two pieces to be bonded together with glue.  If done properly, a finger joint will actually be stronger than the wood around it.

Wherever possible, we use solid single piece wood for our millwork.  However on wide products such as our 12″ Raised Panel Newels, it is not practical or even desirable to have a single board of that width.  So in these cases we use finger joints to join multiple pieces of wood together.

When finger joints are used in a product, the result is a “paint grade” product, which means it works great if painted, but may look odd if stained.  With species such as Western Red Cedar, the color of one board varies greatly from one board to the next, and therefore you would definitely would not want to stain that item.  However with Port Orford Cedar, which is what we’ve chosen as our primary wood species, the color is so consistent from piece to piece that many people still stain products that are finger jointed.