I don’t use a table saw or bandsaw as I don’t like tools where I am looking at the cutting edge so like Kudzu I use a miter saw for scarfing small pieces of wood. The downside of using a miter saw is it cannot cut scarfs on large pieces.

I use a very simple jig, hardly worthy of the name, just 2 pieces of squared wood, about the thickness of the wood to be scarfed. With the blade set at the correct angle piece #1 - which should be wide enough to extend beyond the saw blade - is clamped on the left of the blade, just touching. Piece #2 is as wide or wider than the scarf and is clamped on the right, with enough space between the 2 pieces for the wood that is to be scarfed. Each piece of wood being scarfed has a spring clamp on it that rests against the wide plank; that stops the piece being pulled into the blade. That’s it.

I average about a minute or two a pair. I use a thin kerf finishing blade so there’s not much dust, no backlash, they are all nice and square and ready to glue.

There’s very little time and material in the jig so if it wears or gets lost I can make a new one in minutes. I have made more elaborate jigs but this is the best as well as the simplest.

I have a neat jig for gluing scarfs: I use fairly coarse scarf angles typically 1:5 or 1:6. Strength is as good as the material but the problem is the 2 pieces slide apart when clamped. That seems to be the only reason for using the traditional 12:1 angle, other than to ensure fair bends. As an experiment I made up some 2.5:1 joints and they broke across the joint face not along it so 5 or 6:1 has a good safety margin.

I have a jig with 2 clamps (type shown in Paul’s post Nov 27) which hold the 2 pieces in alignment while I clamp them, so they can’t slide: I use Titebond III which thickens in less than 5 minutes so the clamped pieces can be carefully removed from the jig ready for the next pair.