Replies

1. 
   Rob_Millard | Feb 07, 2002 03:25am | #1

   *
   Before power tools dominated the scene, mortises were chopped with a stout chisel. The width of the chisel determines the width of the mortise. You stand in line with the mortise, and make a series of chop cuts, about 1/16-1/8” deep working the length of the mortise, and repeat this until you reach your depth. By standing in line with the cut, you can keep the chisel aligned vertically by eye, and after you get down far enough the chisel will guide itself off the already established walls of the mortise, so it is important to get a good start. This can go quite fast. It is a good idea to clamp a piece of scrap along the face, if the mortise is close to it, in order to prevent breaking out the sides, since hand chopping a mortise is an exercise in brutality. I’m a big fan of hand tools, but I draw the line at chopping mortises by hand. For small ones I use my drill press w/ an attachment, and for larger one, my router with a spiral bit.

1. 
   Tris_White | Feb 07, 2002 03:26am | #2

   *jeeg moore,I'm not an oldtimer or even all that experienced but I found Frank Klausz video very helpful (except that he makes it seem so easy). I think the video is simply called 'cutting mortise and tenon joints' but I'm not sure. I got it at the local library. Hope this helpsTris

1. 
   a_jepson | Feb 07, 2002 03:54am | #3

   *a drill press and a brad point bit can be used to get rid of most of the waste, then the rest can be chopped out by hand. remember to keep your chisels sharp. good luck

1. 
   Danford_C._Jennings | Feb 07, 2002 04:03am | #4

   *Jeeg,Mortising chisels are still being made. If this is a mortise of relatively good size you might consider a firmer chisel, firmers are primarily used in the boat building trades for chopping out mortises and the keel rabbet. White Oak is the preferred wood for keels and frame, by the way.Chopping out a mortise is really not that difficult and, IMO, a very basic skill. The key is to lay them out accurately with a marking knife (the first cut is the last cut) and working your way down, so to speak, in layers. I often still chop them by hand especially when only a few are needed. A good quality mallet goes a long way to making this an enjoyable experience. A mortising or firmer chisel does not need a finely honed bezel like a paring chisel does, nor should a "micro bezel" put on. My mortising chisels have 30° straight bezel.My recommendation would be to get a set of mortising chisels or firmers to get the job done. FWIW. Dano

1. 
   a_jepson | Feb 07, 2002 04:15am | #5

   *if your cutting them completely by hand then dano's right, you should use mortising chisels, but for cleaning up after the drill press, a sharp paring chisel does a good job IMO

2. 
   Will_O'Brien_2 | Feb 07, 2002 06:28am | #6

   *I recently cut my first mortises by hand for a bed and really enjoyed it. Be careful to keep the sides of the mortise verticle, I found clamping an inch thick piece of scrap along the side of the mortise to help keep the chisel veticle when cleaning up the sides helped. I also made my own mallet out of ash, nice heavy head and good fit to my hand made the experience all the better.When I have to make several mortises I remove most of the mortise with a Forsner bit in the drill press and use firmers to clean it up - goes rather quickly and the bottom is much cleaner.When chopping mortises by hand, how clean / smooth do you guys get the bottom of the mortise? How important is it to be clean / smooth? Obiviously mine wasn't that clean / smooth.Will

3. 
   Frank_H._Biscardi | Feb 07, 2002 07:38am | #7

   *Cutting mortises by hand will give you cleaner mortises ( after some practice) then using a drill press with a mortising bit. It isn't that difficult and can actually be fun.Frank

4. 
   Frenchy_Dampier | Feb 07, 2002 08:10am | #8

   *Mikta has a chain mortiser for you if you want to power tool it. I have to since I'm carving so many of them into my timberframe. Doesn't make the neatest pocket, but when you're 20 plus feet in the air setting a 600 pound beam in place accuracy not neatness counts! As far as bottom of the pocket goes, it doesn't matter! The Tenion sits on the shoulders not bottomed in the pocket. For smaller mortises I use a forstner bit since you can overlap holes without wandering and thus removes more wood so there is less chisel work (which I've actually come to enjoy, but realize how fiddly it is)

5. 
   AJinNZ_ | Feb 08, 2002 04:23am | #9

   *I made a butchers block a couple of years ago and used mortice and tenons in the legs and rails to make sure it would have loads of strength, just incase some wildman went nuts on it one day.The thing had 16 such joints and I did all by hand. It didnt take as long as I thought and was surprisingly easy. I did experiment with drilling out the waste first, but found I couldnt guide the chisel as well as it wanted to 'fall into a hole'.A good mallet made the thumping easier and gave me a much bigger clout when I wanted it.

6. 
   Tom_Ferreira | Feb 08, 2002 05:00am | #10

   *I plow mine out with a forstner bit and then clean up with a chisel. this works for just about any size. Just finished a new bench last year for the shop and morticed the frame this way. 16 mortices, 1 1/2" x 3" x 2" deep. Used a Sorby corner chisel to get the corners square and a paring chisel to clean up the sides.TDF

7. 
   mark_w.davis | Feb 22, 2002 01:28am | #11

   *I'm really surprised no one mentioned a plunge router with a spiral cutting bit on it? Yes you may have to square up the corners, or you may want to round the tenons, either way, it works real well. I mortised out about 20 doors for old mortice lock sets. I made a simple jig with stops on it, and a depth stick to check that. No Tenons here but they're the easier part, to me anyway. I've hand chiseled them too. Doesn't take nearly as long as you would think.

8. 
   Matthew_Harper | Feb 26, 2002 02:28am | #12

   *Jeeg,This may be heresy on this website, but the last two issues of Woodworkers Journal have articles on cutting morises by hand. They are well written and may be just what you need.Matt

9. 
   CStanford_ | Feb 26, 2002 03:20pm | #13

   *It's not heresy at all. Cut them by hand - you don't need to jig up for the cut, you don't need to buy a machine. If you can wield a small try or carpenters square, a pencil, and a mortise chisel you'll do fine. Drilling out the waste makes the operation a tad speedier, but you can skip that step without any problems.If you decide to go into the production furniture making business then buy a mortising machine. If you enjoy simplicity and you don't want the fun to be over too fast (cutting joinery is the essence of the craft) then get a chisel or two and enjoy.

10. 
    Danford_C._Jennings | Feb 26, 2002 07:01pm | #14

    *Cutting them by hand was suggested in reply #4...Dano

11. 
    Matthew_Harper | Feb 26, 2002 07:32pm | #15

    *I the heresy was in reference to Woodworkers Journal on a Fine Woodworking Website.Matt

12. 
    CStanford_ | Feb 27, 2002 02:31am | #16

    *Sorry, I was apparently a little out of synch on this one.I simply put my vote in for those who have already suggested that they be cut by hand.

13. 
    Matthew_Harper | Feb 27, 2002 03:54am | #17

    *CStanford,Don't worry about it I didn't word the statement very well. I read it after your post and noticed that the wording made it sound like I was refering to hand cutting mortises rather than the magazine.