I visited a local woodworker today who has a new CNC router in his shop and is looking for ways to use it. We talked about the obvious, cutting forms. We also talked about cutting scarf joints. He showed me a bowl he had made with a series of stepped cuts, which were clearly smooth enough to make a good scarf joint. We talked about making a stepped scarf joint that would reduce the number of individual passes with the router and leave steps that would lock together and self-align the joint. Then he said, "Why not just make a shiplap joint the length of the scarf." That got me thinking. Why not make a stepped joint with just one step? It doesn't make sense if you're cutting the joints with a plane, but it does if you're using a router. And, how many steps does it take to effectively mimic a bevel cut scarf joint?

Mike Scarborough
Friendship Kayak