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Mission mirror
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Timeless mortise-and-tenon joinery make for a classic Arts and Crafts design
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By Michel Roy, photos by Martin Tessler, illustration by Len Churchill
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Reflect your love for Arts and Crafts through the looking glass of this clean and classic mirror-frame design.
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This mirror is a classic variation on the Mission design theme that elevates simple rails and stiles while also showing off your joinery skills. I added a slight convex arc on the top rail, but you don't have to stop there. A concave arc on the mirror's bottom rail is also an option. The flat frame surfaces are ideal for inlay or incised carvings. Simple corbelled candle sconces could also be mounted to the stiles.
The exposed corner tenons are key to the design. Mission principles allow structural details to serve as decoration.
The Right Frame
Ideally, the size of every mirror frame should be tailored to fit the place where it's going to hang. Find a home for your mirror before you start work, then adjust length and width dimensions to suit the space.
Begin by choosing and milling your wood. I used quartersawn white oak-the classic species for Mission designs-although other hardwoods work fine too. The rails and stiles are all 3/4" thick. Notice that the top rail is an inch wider than the bottom rail, to accommodate the arc.
Once you have milled your stock, lay out, cut and test assemble all mortises and tenons without glue.
Mirror, Mirror
You have a couple of options for preparing the arc on the top rail. You could make a router template to match the curve, then rough-cut it with a jigsaw before using a bearing-guided flush-trimming router bit to transfer the final shape to your wood. You could also trace the arc directly onto the wood, rough-cut it with a saw, then refine the shape with a block plane or belt sander.
Either way, draw the arc by tracing a bent piece of thin wood, or set up a very large compass with a long piece of rigid scrap pivoting on a finishing nail.
After the curve is cut, join the frame parts permanently with glue. Just be careful. You have to keep glue off the ends of the tenons. They'll be peeking out the other sides of the mortises after assembly, and glue would mar the effect. You can stay tidy by finishing the parts before assembly, or finishing the tenon ends only. This way any extra glue wipes off easily. Here's another option: insert the tenons partway into their mortises, then apply glue to the tenon sides. Keep the glue back far enough from the shoulders to prevent squeeze-out. Brush on a coat of glue, followed a moment later by another, thinner coat. This two-stage approach helps spread the glue evenly, while also ensuring that the joint isn't starved of adhesive. Proper glue application is one of those things that gets better with practice, so be patient with yourself if things don't go perfectly.
Clamp the frame together, checking that it's square and flat. When the glue has set, plane, scrape or sand any misalignment. Next, cut a rabbet all around the inside back of the frame to accommodate the mirror. A bearing-guided rabbeting bit in a table-mounted router works best. Take shallow passes, no more than 1/8" deep at a time. If chipping is a problem, carefully rout with the bit's direction of travel rather than against it. This is called climb cutting and it produces very fine cuts, although you need to be careful.
Since you're pushing wood in the same direction as the router bit spins, be careful that the wood isn't pulled out of your hand. As you work, aim to rabbet deep enough so there's room for both the mirror and a protective back panel of 1/8"-thick hardboard. Square up the corners with a chisel.
| YOU WILL NEED | | PART | SIZE* | QTY | | Top rail | 3/4" x 5" x 47 5/8"
| 1 | | Bottom rail | 3/4" x 4" x 47 5/8" | 1 | | Stiles | 3/4" x 4" x 34 1/2" | 2 | | All parts made from white oak *Length indicates grain direction |
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