Dowels, biscuits and lamellos

Dowels, biscuits and domino’s are wooden connectors that help align and reinforce wood joints. They are often used to join weaker materials such as laminated particle board, as opposed to traditional joints that can be carved out of solid timber without additional wood pieces.

Dowels are short wooden rods that can be inserted into a drill hole on both sides of the wood to be connected. Biscuits are flat ‘biscuit’ shaped wooden pieces that are used to help align an edge or butt joint when gluing. A domino joint is larger than a biscuit and has some of the advantages of dowels and some of biscuits.

The most straight forward wood connectors are made from beech, birch, mahogany or oak, but they are available in any imaginable wood type. There are also special types of dowels and biscuits on the market that are metal or plastic.

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The life cycle	Pro	Con
	Low Energy The embodied energy of a dowel or biscuit is less than 1% of that of a stainless steel screw. Low footprint Made of a natural, non processed material, dowels and wood connections have a a tiny ecological footprint. Use them together with a good natural or PVA wood glue.

	Non toxic No toxics are produced when making dowel, biscuit or domino joints. However, the type of glue that is used to connect the wood joint can be non safe. Low cost Dowels and biscuits are inexpensive, dominos are a bit more pricy.
	Space saving When dowels or biscuits are used without glue, but e.g. in combination with screws, a construction can be transported flat and put together on site. This saves space and therefore energy in transport.
	Non toxic Joints are not toxic. However, some types of glues that are used to connect the wood joint can offgas and leach small amounts of toxics even after curing.		Tips In particle board, dowels can break out and destroy the furniture. This is not the case for massive wood.

	Easy recycling Wooden connection pieces can be incinerated safely with the wood. They do not have to be separated.