When I started sliding down the slippery slope of hand tools one task I was certain I wouldn't be interested in was chopping out mortises, That changed one day when I had a couple mortises to make and felt too lazy to set up the drill press. First try, I had a much more accurate and squarer mortise than I ever had using a drill press and paring corners and even more surprising it took no time at all, and that was with a bevel edge chisel. I had an inexpensive 1/2 inch mortise chisel I bought just in case I ever wanted to give it a try, sharpened it up, practiced, now I'm hooked. I took the plunge today and ordered a 1/4 and 3/8 Ray Iles English mortise chisel pair from Tools For Woodworking (darn - backordered, although I believe it will be worth the wait). Now for the advice I'm looking for;

I own a LV 16 oz beech mallet for general use that has worked well so far. While I'm sure it's personal preference, I'm looking for opinions on moving up to a 24 oz mallet if this is going to be my primary method of making mortises. Or is there a favorite mallet out there you'd recommend?

Secondly - how important is a swan neck chisel to clean out the bottom of mortises? I'm wondering if the D2 steel of the Ray Iles chisels will hold up well enough to scraping the bottoms.


Thanks in advance!