A piece of typical modern skirting of, say, 2 or 3 metres in length, has enough flexibility to bend it and allow it to straighten out into place. Not always true of chunky Victorian type skirting!
Thats for the internal mitres.
Its a scribed joint to allow for wood movement which would cause a mitre to open up.
If you do have a powered mitre saw then use an angle gauge to establish the angle of the corner and then this to set up the mitre saw. If the skirting is too high to fit under the blade then simply place the wood on its flat surface and adjust the angle of attack of the blade to suit.
You're probably going to need some decorators caulk in the finish anyway.
Any shrinkage causes it to open up. Internal corners are usually on very long runs - like between two walls - external ones short, round say a chimney breast.
I have one of these (or something very similar).
Not sure if it quite copes with 120 mm so no good for period houses, but it gives more depth than a traditional mitre block.
Because the longer part which isn't the one with the profile can shrink and move slightly, as it should extend beyond the joint, without opening up the gap. A mitre has a 'profile' on both parts. So any shrinkage will always show by it opening up.
Of course if you use material which doesn't shrink - like perhaps some well seasoned hardwoods or MDF - it may not matter. But with the common materials, it usually does.
I have to agree with several earlier posters that skirting should only be m itred on external corners and scribed on internal corners. An easy way to s cribe internal corners on the likes of torus and ovolo skirting is to cut a mitre the "wrong" way as if making an internal mitre, the edge produced wh ere the mitre and front surface meet is your cutting line. Start the cut al ong the straight bit with a panel saw finishing the curved portions with a coping saw.
At the last house I had to replace every inch of skirting with 7" deep toru s and managed every external mitre ( of which there were plenty with chimne y breasts and support piers) with a homemade mitre box specific for the ski rting. It consisted of two pieces of ply fastened to a spacer a whisker wid er than the thickness of the skirting. The left and right mitres were marke d on the top edges an carefully marked down the depth of the box and simply cut with the saw I was going to use to cut the skirting. Anyone who does n ot feel confident in cutting a straight line over a depth in excess of 7" c an use a couple of guides affixed to either side of the box to keep the saw from wandering. A couple of pieces of thin ply affixed to the top edges ke eps the sides of the box parallel.
Richard
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