I made 2 jigs that alllow scarfing strips with at least a 1-1/2" overlap. Scarfs are near perfect and are usually only obvoius when the grain is not adequately matched. Basically one jig is a tapered wood block tha allows locking in a strip between 2 shallow angled wedges. The wedges are far enough apart to allow running a small hand plane over the strip end. You lowly feed strip further out til you get a complete scarf. Takes all of 30 seconds to get a PERFECT bevel on strip. THIs gives you a 3/4" x 1-1/2" area of glueing space.

The second jig easily aligns the 2 overlapping strips & allows easy clamping till dry. If you're careful, you can stack 2 strip at a time, but I rarely bothered.

I can send photos if anyone cares.