Cutting Scribed internal corners on skirting boards.

Hopefully this is simple enough



I took these photos when replacing a short length of skirting at the base of a false wall, so the original skirting goes under the wall.



Photo 1 - the preceeding skirting board is butt joined into the corner, and fixed.
Photo 2 - butt the next length up to the corner and mark a line paralell to the first skirting board. It may not be 90°, as the first skirting board may not be exactly vertical. This can happen when nailing.
Photo 3 - angle your saw to the same angel marked on the skirting board (eg 89°). Then tilt your saw 45°. Cut the skirting board, as if you were going to mitre the joint. (I did it different in the photo as the angle was 90°
Photo 4 - Resulting cut
Photo 5 - use a coping saw to cut away all the exposed 45° bits (The end grain, or on MDF the exposed stuff)

Photo 1 - use a coping saw to cut away all the exposed 45° bits (The end grain, or on MDF the exposed stuff) I used my scroll saw as the length was easy enough to handle
Photo 2 - Different view
Photo 3 – when butted up against the last skriting board it now appears to be a mitred cut.



The advantage is that if the skirting boards aren't exactly vertical the joint doesn't open up. Even if the second skirting board is not vertical the joint still doesn't open up. This technique can also be used for more elaborate skriting boards, just takes a bit more time to cut with the coping saw.

Well described, Brian :2tsup:

I thought I had better finish this off. The other end is a basic butt joint. As most if not all plaster walls have a slight rounding in the corner. Puttting a sharp square against this can cause a crack to apear above eth corner. To solve this I put a small chamfer on the back corner of the butt joint.

The other advantage of doing scribed joingts is taht if you cut the board a little short, even 5-10 mm it only shows on the top back corner. A borod short by 5 mm will only leave a triangualr hole of 5 x 5mm. as there is teh light rounding in teh corner this hole is even smllaer and barely noticable.

Back when I was an apprentice (and the only power tools were a drill and a 9 1/4" b&d saw) all the skirting and beads were scribed to the internal corners because no more gaps had not yet been invented.

I lament this because the skill level has dropped. I can't remember the last time I saw a "tradesman" cut a miter with a hand saw, even 19mm quad:no:. They will walk 10m to the saw to make one trim cut :doh:

So how are the fancy period feature skirting boards done?

Same process I think, cut at 45degrees to give edge to follow, coping saw to cut, & file or abrasive to fine tune.