First mortise

[Frank Martin]

Call me old fashioned John, just want to learn how to do it by hand, fascinated by the people that can do it so well and from what I saw of Seller's video, it can actually be quicker than power tools, especially considering the time spent with jigs. Granted, a router won't care how hard the wood is like a chisel does, but I'd still like to get moderately proficient with it.

No problem doing it with chisels as you clearly want to learn the process and seem to enjoy hand tools more than power tools. However, don't fall for the chisel is faster argument. I do lose tenon joinery for the most part. Now it is with Festool Domino, before it was with a Wood Rat or Router Boss. I am doing this as a hobby and there is no way Paul Sellers (I really like him for other reasons), or any other pro can cut 20 mortises faster with a chisel than I can do 40 of them with the power tools I have. I use hand tools too, just not for mortising.

[Chris Hachet]

Unlike some here I've always found mortising with a router to be a pain. Lots of jigs to make, trying to balance a big router on a narrow board or guess accurately where you were on a router table, having to either square the mortise or round the tenon, etc. I don't get the allure. I now have the bigger General mortising machine with the indexing table that makes short work of cutting mortises very reproducibly and very quickly, but before that I either chopped them fully by hand or drilled out the bulk of the wood with a forstner bit and then squared it up with a mortising chisel. Each way took 10-15 minutes each and was relatively pleasing work to do.

I have Jet morticing machine and mortice Chisels. Either are prefferred in my shop as they are quieter, make less of a mess, and are more enjoyable. YMMV.

Regards,

Chris

[Chris Hachet]

Sadly, you do not live close, but, I could drop one of my chisels in the mail for you to test.... You just need to send it back after you have tested it. I only have the Ray Iles chisels, however.

Good to know you like the Ray isles, I have Sorby, vintage pig stickers, and another German mortice chisel (pig sticker) I picked up. Thinking of getting the Isles just because I would like a matched set.

[Chris Hachet]

You will get there. How many have you done now? It will get easier as you get more familiar with (in no particular order): sharpening, holding the chisel, marking out the mortise, moving the chisel in the mortise, striking the chisel, clamping or holding the work down, etc. It is all intertwined and each step feeds into the others. I have one friend that was striking too hard when he first started and that caused him to very slightly move the chisel out of square when he struck the chisel. He was striking too hard because his chisels were not sharp enough from the get-go, plus he was not stopping work to re hone them soon enough. His chisels were not very good steel, but buying better chisels did not really solve the issue as much as finding out what "sharp" was and setting up an easy-to-use sharpening station for quick re honing. How each chisel handle fits of "feels" in my hand is a whole lot of the equation for me when it comes to creating perpendicular chops.

I also sharpen frequently when working. it is really quick to go to my finest stone and polish up a bit as opposed to starting out coarse and going through teh whole process. When it starts feeling slightly dull.....it needs to hit the stone IMHO.

[Brian Holcombe]

I chop mortises with the work clamped to my saw bench, using a mortise chisel a mortise gauge and a square.





I also use a bottom scraping chisel because I use Japanese mortise chisels, if you are using Ray isles you won't need that.

In rock maple it may take about 10-15 minutes once you get som practice under your belt.

[lowell holmes]

Paul Sellers (I really like him for other reasons), or any other pro can cut 20 mortises faster with a chisel than I can do 40 of them with the power tools I have. I use hand tools too, just not for mortising.[/QUOTE]

Paul can chop one or two mortises before you can get your machine set up. I've seen him work. I have mortise pal and like it, but for one or two mortises, it gets done with a chisel.