Mortises for Dummies

A hinge mortise has no tenon

The adage would have it that "Half a loaf is better than none," but we aren't so sure. We especially aren't so sure when some freelancer attempts to define a term that five minutes ago had been unfamiliar; and even more so when said freelancer doesn't do a particularly good job. That's what's wrong today: freelancer Maggie Worth attempted to answer "What Is a Mortise?" for the WiseGEEK niche AboutMechanics.com, but only managed to compile half an answer.

According to Worth,

"A mortise is a cavity or hole that is cut into wood or stone, and is specially intended to receive a tenon, or protrusion, on another piece of wood or stone."

We don't argue with that definition, nor do we quibble with the other 360 words of Worth's post, in which she loving describes (or, more likely, transcribes) all manner of historical information about mortise and tenon joints.

What we will argue, on the other hand, is that Maggie did a lousy job of research, stopping with the first definition in some online dictionary. In point of fact, a mortise is any pocket or recess in wood (or, we suppose, stone) cut to make room for a part or assembly of parts. It's a pretty safe bet that there is a mortise, without any tenon, within a few feet of where you sit at this very moment. We can say that because the hinges on most wooden doors are set in small pockets: mortises. Speaking of doors, a fair number of door locksets are – you guessed it – mortised into the edge of the door.
Worth got what she said right. Maggie's problem is that she quit too soon, quit after seeing the definition of a mortise and tenon joint. Had she been a little more careful... heck, if Maggie had had the slightest idea what she was writing about! our Dumbass of the Day would have done a better job and covered the full answer to "What is a mortise?"

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