Mortise-and-Tenon Joinery Makes a Comeback in Solid Wood Furniture

Traditional mortise and tenon craft has become mainstream in solid wood furniture manufacturing again. Solid wood dining tables, chairs and cabinets joined by mortise and tenon without nails or screws keep gaining market popularity, as consumers recognize the durability and environmental value of traditional woodworking craft. In early years, to cut production costs, most furniture factories simplified techniques and used screws and hardware buckles to splice solid wood parts, which tend to loosen and creak after long-term use, and the load-bearing parts of dining tables are prone to deformation and damage.

Now manufacturers restore classic structures such as dovetail tenon, Zongjiao tenon and straight tenon. The tabletop and support of dining tables, as well as the backrest and seat board of dining chairs are connected by integrated mortise and tenon without metal fasteners, bearing force evenly and resisting loosening and cracking for more than ten years. Craft upgrading also revives manual woodworking posts, with salaries of professional mortise and tenon technicians rising steadily, and the industry attaches importance to the inheritance of traditional woodworking skills.

From the consumer side, mortise and tenon solid wood dining tables of the same size still enjoy higher sales with a premium of 10%-18%. Customers with Chinese and retro home decoration specially choose full mortise and tenon dining sets. Families with multiple children and long-term homeowners focusing on durability also prefer mortise and tenon solid wood products. Industry surveys show that sales of full mortise and tenon solid wood furniture increased by 32% year-on-year in the past year. Market feedback proves that natural wood joining craft has irreplaceable competitiveness, and pushes the whole industry to abandon shoddy simplified techniques and return to the core advantages of solid wood furniture: durability and natural texture.