Finger-jointing means economical utilization of shortwood and simultaneous product upgrading. Shortwood lengths are turned into horizontally or vertically jointed solid-wood lengths that can be made into high-grade glued-wood products.

The finger-jointing is recognized as the most sturdy method of the length joint. The joint is made by a process whereby wedge-shaped fingers are machined into the en of sie-grain of the pieces of timber to be joined, adhesives developed for joining timbers are applied to the exposed faces of the fingers, the fingers on any two pieces of wood are mated so that the protuding fingers on one piece of timber will slide into the grooves cut on the other piece, and end prssure is applied so that the wedge-shaped fingers "lock" together. The end pressure will also supply sufficient lateral pressure to the adhasive between the sloping faces of the fingers that the adhesive will saisfactorily bond the two pieces of timber together with sufficient strength and reliability that the resulting piece will be usable in load bearing situations. Finger-jointing is widely used to produce longer, finger-jointed lengths of good quality timber from wood having an unacceptably high number of defects.