t of the back iron which is fixed on the saw will
ensure the saw feeding into the work quite fast enough. If the saw is
newly sharpened it will, in fact, be an advantage to slightly ease the
weight of the saw from off the wood, owing to the keenness of its edge.
If the halving is a very wide one, additional cuts may be sawn between
the outside marks, and these will greatly facilitate the removal of the
waste wood when paring it away. For sawing the joint reference may be
made to the chapter on Dovetailing.

[Illustration: Fig. 70.--Sawing the Cheek of a Halving Joint.]

PARING away the waste material with a chisel is the next step, and this
is shown at Fig. 68. The work may be chiselled either in a vertical or a
horizontal position. The horizontal position is the easiest for the
amateur who has a vice or handscrew, because he may hold the work
securely with a mechanical device and so avoid the unnecessary risk to
his fingers.

Take the chisel and cut away A, Fig. 68; now turn the chisel and cut
away B; after which keep the chisel horizontal and cut off "the top of
the hill," as it were, C. Repeat the three operations until you gradually
pare the wood away exactly to the gauge line. When chiselling, if you
find a tendency for the work to chip or crumble at the back edge owing to
the forward pressure of the chisel, turn your wood round and begin to cut
from the other edge, allowing the chisel to finish paring at the centre.

JOINTS OTHER THAN A RIGHT ANGLE.--If the halving joint is at an angle
similar to the sketch shown at Fig. 69, great care will have to be
exercised in the use of the chisel, owing to the change in the direction
of the grain of the wood. The arrow marks in this sketch distinctly
indicate the direction in which the chiselling must be done so as to give
a smooth result. This change of direction for cutting also applies to the
bottom of the halving joint.

CUTTING JOINT AT END OF TIMBER (Fig. 70).--Should the halving joint be
used at the end of a piece of wood, as at Fig. 30, the waste material may
be roughly sawn away and the flat surface trimmed up with a chisel.

To saw out this type of halving joint, proceed to work the shoulder line
as already described; then place the piece of wood obliquely in the vice
as shown (Fig. 70) and proceed to saw down the vertical line, carefully
watching the gauge line to see that you saw on the _waste_ side of the
lines. Then turn the piece of timber with its opposi