Proper Tool for Hacking Niche in Workbench?

[Steve H Graham]

Now that I have come to the amazing realization that I can sharpen chisels, I have been at work. I took out my other two Home Depot chisels and fixed them up. Then I had nothing to chisel. But right in front of me, I saw a niche I had cut in my workbench. I put it there a long time ago with a drill and a rotary burr type of thing. It provides clearance for a tool that mounts on the bench.

The niche was really coarse, so I started poking around on it, and I learned a few things about chisels. It's starting to look more like a feature I created on purpose and not through some unfortunate shop accident.

A question arises: what is the proper tool for making a little cutout like this, if you want it to look good? Right now I'm peeling and scraping with the chisel, but it has occurred to me that I might as well ask if this is what a serious Neanderthal would do.

Is it okay to use the end of the chisel like a scraper? It seems like there are some places where the cheesy 2x6 wood is determined to tear out unless I do this. I'm sure it will be hard on the edge, but now that I'm a big sharpening expert, that will only take a couple of minutes to fix.

06 17 15 ammo press niche on workbench.jpg

[Garrett Ellis]

can't tell if that is a level bottom or if it slopes up to the bench top.

if it is level, i would define the edges with a chisel and use a big chisel to chop/pare out the big stuff, then clean up with a router plane. if you don't have a router plane (or if the bottom is sloped up), just keep using the chisel.

if it is sloped, you can cut a series of kerfs with a saw and then chop out the 'triangles'. then smooth out the face by paring with a chisel. think of it like a stopped chamfer.

[Judson Green]

A question arises: what is the proper tool for making a little cutout like this, if you want it to look good?

Looks kinda like your making a mortise for a hinge and for that I'll sometimes set up a router plane just for the last pass so all the mortises are the same depth. Takes some of the guess work out. Workmanship of certainty. But a chisel is used to define and hog out and if only doing one door, or I don't really care bout the look, I'll do it all with just a chisel, well a mallet too.

Is it okay to use the end of the chisel like a scraper?

Sure, at least I do it. Usually not for scraping the wood itself but for cleaning dried glue out of a joint or something like that.

[Steve H Graham]

A router plane! An excuse to buy a new tool!

There is a slope upward to the bench.

It looks ten times better now. I did more work on it and sanded it a little.

I was using the end of the chisel sort of like a plane, except that it was nearly perpendicular to the work.

[paul cottingham]

Seriously, two words. Router plane. The medium sized one from LV is a fantastic tool for the money. One of those tools you wish you bought much earlier!
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/pag...30,41182,48945.

[Pat Barry]

I don't see this as a router plane job, primarily because of the slope. I see marking the lines, cutting the ends with a saw, then paring to the lines with a nice wide chisel. On the other hand, if it is a flat bottom and not sloped as it appears to me, then router plane if you have one, other wise, still a chisel job

[Stew Denton]

Hi Steve,

I have cut lots of mortises for door hinges in the door and jamb using a combination square, utility knife to mark the hinge locations, and a hammer and chisel. You don't need the bed of the mortise to be neat because the hinge will cover that up, but, by paring away I could have made the bed of the mortise look nice.

So yes, I think a chisel is just fine for that job.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

So yes, I think a chisel is just fine for that job.

+1 on what Stew and others have said.

Hinge mortices are fairly easy with a chisel after one has done a few of them. Most of the time I like to make mine smooth so there isn't any hinge rocking.

On a larger surface or with some help from a Moxon vise or a jerry rigged equivalent a router plane is a fine companion to this kind of work.

jtk

[Johan Gustavsson]

or just use your chisel with an old woman's tooth / poor mans router plane.

post-11619-0-48626100-1370541468[1].jpg

[Steve H Graham]

Something new to learn about.

[Brian Holcombe]

Steve,

If you have a particular slope in mind, you can cut a that slope into a board, clamp it into place on your bench and use it as a paring block.

On the back edge, I would knife a straight line then pare the edge. Do the same and use a paring block if you want a perfect 90.

Last is the cutout. To get where you are now I would have made cuts every 1/2" or so, cross grain, then pared away. If you are not 100% on your paring skills this can be a good skill builder, but you can also use a router plane.

I used to use a router plane alot, now very little. The chisel is much quicker but is only as accurate as the user, the router plane is usually very accurate but takes longer.