Originally Posted by
Sean Nagle
It is rare that I chop mortises from scratch, but I have on occasion. I usually hog out most of the material with a Fostner bit in a drill press and then clean them up afterwards with my bench chisels. However, I always felt I was abusing my bench chisels doing this and was under the impression that I needed a more robust chisel, thus a mortising chisel.
You can get used Japanese ones from eBay for decent prices if you feel like experimenting.
My urge to mention the possibility of buying used has so far had me bitting my tongue. My only problem with buying used is some of the Narex mortise chisels are less expensive than what mine cost used. It also took a long time before two old mortise chisels were listed that didn't attract other bidders to challenge my frugal bid.
The Narex mortise chisels were not available when mine were purchased.
With Sean mentioning he hogs out with a Fostner bit, something to consider would be to purchase only one size that is used the most.
Whether to hog and cut or just pound and cut still has me on the fence. With the hog and cut method it is easy to use a few bench chisels to pare the sides and chop the ends. Making the mortise just a bit longer than the paring chisel to be used works for me. Just one of the reasons for having chisels int the 1 to 2 inch range. Of course it can be done with a narrower chisel. It just takes longer. It also is helps to have a chisel matching the width. This is where the mortise chisel would make quick work cutting the ends.
Time wise it seems a bunch of mortises can be banged out faster than the drill press can be set up, the pieces drilled and then cleaned up. Which then brings us back to why one needs a set.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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