A miter lock is a form of joinery in which a 45° miter cut is applied to the edge and end of solid-wood pieces, and a machined locking system cut into each piece in a mirrored alignment prevents any vertical slipping or shearing when they are joined. Woodworkers generally consider this a strong but difficult joint to achieve, due to the intense accuracy required in the 'lock' cut. Another challenge which must be properly managed is fence setup- it's often considered tricky, but can be achieved with more accurate fences and jigs. It's not recommended to cut miter locks without insert knife tooling- the process becomes too arduous to be a realistic choice.