Next up, making the shafts rounder, but first, done quick fine-tuning of the tenons with a float. I had aimed to make the mortises slightly larger at the bottom than the top, so mostly this is a matter of inserting the tenon into the mortise and seeing what rubs, then making the tenon a tiny bit smaller from that point down.

Eventually, things fit together.

Then I mark lines on the four sides of the shaft. Somewhere between ¼ and ⅓ of the width.

Then I set the shaft in a jig I have that holds it at a 45°︎ angle, and plane each corner down to the lines. When I hit the lines, it’s pretty close to octagonal.

Tomorrow, or maybe later today, I’ll hold the shafts in my carving vise, and use a spokeshave to make them rounder.