181 



on one edge at each end. See that the tenons on the slats are 

 not too thick, but have them a sixteenth of an inch wider than 

 the mortise. Drive stiles and slats firmly together, and mark 

 the tenons in the holes of the stiles with the bit. Drive the 

 stiles partly off, and bore the holes in the tenon* about a six 

 teenth of an inch nearer the shoulders than they are in the 

 stile. Give all the tenons a good painting, or smear them 

 with coal tar, and drive them together and pin them, painting 

 the pins when they are driven in. A gate usually decays first 

 in the joints, and if they be well painted, and the draw pins, 

 which should be made of oak or yellow locust, well painted 

 when they are driven in, a gate will last forty years. Put on 

 the stays by cutting a gain on one side of the arm, about half 

 an inch deep, and halve the ends of the stays, and paint the 

 joints, and fasten them with carriage-bolts. If it is thought best, 

 lay out the mortises for the slats in the stiles half an inch on 

 one side of the centre, and .then make mortises in the under side of 

 the arm two inches deep for the stays. Put small carriage-bolts 

 through the lower ends of the stays and bottom slat. A wrought 

 nail will answer through the other slats and stays. Let in the 

 strut in the hinge stile and upper arm, by making a gain half an 

 inch deep. Make the strut first, and then mark off the gains, 

 and have it fit tightly. If the upper hinge is not bolted to the 

 arm, as in Fig. 82, put not less than three draw-pins through 

 the tenon of the upper arm, because there is great strain on this 

 arm, which tends to draw the tenon out, while the strain on the 

 lower arm or slats is inward. I have mentioned the most impor 

 tant considerations in making a gate. Space will not allow me 

 to give all the minutiae. 



HANGING GATES. 



241. The first step in hanging a gate of any kind is, to decide 

 how it is desired to have it hung. One must decide whether he 

 will have it hung so as to open both ways, or but one way only, 

 and whether it is to be so hung that it will remain at rest at any 

 point which it may pass in opening it ; or whether it shall be so 



