Wonky mortise

[wdteipen]

A friend sent me an old Peterson straight Dublin (looks like shape 120F?) with an oval shank that he wants me to make a stem for. The mortise is slightly worn, irregular, and out of round. I'm having a heck of a time getting a good tenon fit. I considered a Delrin sleeve but because of the oval shank I would have to make the tenon 1/4" which to me is a bit flimsy. Anyone have any better ideas? I suppose a stainles steel tenon might work. Thoughts?

[SimeonTurner]

I'm not sure how bad it is, so this might be a bit to dramatic a fix, but you could glue a tenon into the pipe mortise and make your stem with a mortise instead of a tenon (female stem instead of male stem). I imagine that would work, though it might freak him out to have a stem that fits on a tenon instead of a stem that fits into a mortise.

*shrug*

[KurtHuhn]

1/4" tenons are very common. I use them all the time, and as long as your friend isn't a gorilla, it should be fine.

From your description, that might be the way to go.