Miter Fear

Miter joints are as common as nails and are used all the time when molding and trim meet at a corner. As common as they are, they can give seasoned carpenters fits sometimes. While there are many tools and techniques dedicated to the miter, it is possible to avoid them all together. Old houses had few miters thanks to the corner block. These decorative parts come as inside or outside corners for base molding. When casing a window or door, corner blocks are used where the head and the side casings meet. Nice look; no miters.

- Stephen Corwin

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

Answers

For many years I lived in a New Orleans house built in 1895. Decorative corner blocks were used on all the doors and I loved the way they looked. All the wood was swamp cypress--extremely dense wood and, I believe, impervious to termites (or nearly so). There are a few different designs for corner blocks; the following is like the ones in my old hous (all trim was painted high-gloss white)..

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001

Those are the squares we plan on using when we replace the wood work!

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2001