I have made chairs and repaired many also, the purists always use mortise and tenons, for the most part I use dowels.
Regarding the front leg joints using mortise and tenons results in so much material being removed that this is a primary failure area . Using a combination , dowels and M&T seems to me to offer advantages, less material removed and the double dowel if done last locks the tenon in ...
Any thoughts on the matter ???? mjh
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