Gluing up

One of the things I've learned about using glue is that you don't want it show when you've finished. It seals the surface of the wood, so that any subsequent treatment - stain or varnish - won't take properly in the area that has glue on it.

So you have to make sure that the glue goes into the hollowed-out portion of the joint, not on the part that will be going into it. If you glue a peg, as you knock it in, the glue stays on the edge of the hole.

So here I am trying to get the glue carefully into the 12mm hole, without touching the edges:



I found out later it's easier to do it with a flat chip of wood narrowed down with a chisel, rather than with a round peg (as shown here). Once the glue is in the hole, all that's needed is to give the peg a really good thump with the mallet:

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Nevertheless, I broke two pegs, and had to knock them out again from the other side.