: anyone who has the grey matter to cut and glue up the octagon
: shaft likely has the smarts to sort how to attach them together.

That's what I thought too, but I get email asking me to spell it out so routinely it's the single most often-asked question I get believe it or not. So now it's on there. :-)

: Just goes to show, lots of variations on how to do things.

You ain't kidding about that! I'm no authority on the bird's mouth method by any means, just something of a popularizer of it I guess. I love seeing variations on the theme, many are sure to be better than what I came up with.