Toenailing

Toenailing drives a nail or screw at an angle -- typically 30 to 45 degrees -- through the face or edge of one piece and into an adjoining piece, rather than straight through from one face into the other. It's the standard way to join framing members (a stud to a top or bottom plate, for instance) where there's no access to drive a fastener straight through from behind, and shows up in furniture-scale work anywhere the same access problem comes up on a smaller joint.

It's fast and requires no special joinery, but the angled fastener has less direct holding power than a straight-through connection and can split the receiving piece if driven too close to its end -- pre-drilling a pilot hole at the same angle reduces that splitting risk considerably.