Get Crisp Miter-Fold Edges With a Sacrificial Fence Over a Buried Blade

The Problem

A miter fold lives or dies on its edges: the 45-degree bevels have to meet at a knife-crisp corner, and the finished width has to land exact. Cutting bevels against a bare fence risks nicking the show edge, and sneaking up on the fit shaves width with every pass.

The Technique

1. Clamp a sacrificial board to the table saw fence.
2. Tilt the blade to 45 and raise it up into the sacrificial board, so the top of the blade is buried in it.
3. Cut your miter-fold pieces to their exact finished size first, square-edged.
4. Run each piece through with its edge riding the sacrificial fence. The buried blade bevels the edge while the fence face acts as a stop — the width cannot decrease, and the pass only cleans and sharpens the top edge.

Because the fence limits the cut, you can push a piece through as many times as it takes and the dimension holds. That's what makes it repeatable across a whole cabinet's worth of parts.