Kind Readers,
I recently purchased a Sorby 1/4″ sash mortising chisel. When I received the item and inspected it, I noticed that the body (shank?) of chisel is distinctly milled into a parallelogram. I would have expected it to be square. I’m a bit of a novice woodworker so I’m a little confused about the proper use of this type of chisel if the shank is indeed intended to be a parallelogram. How can I a chop a square mortise with such a chisel? Or, have I purchased the wrong tool? Or, is the tool I received not properly manufactured.
— David
Replies
David,
Sounds like it was made on a Friday or a Monday. The top relative to the bottom will taper from the tip(narrower) toward the handle (thicker), but the sides should be parallel to each other and all 4 angles should be square of course, so send it back.
Roy
Thanks... my thoughts exactly! But you never know, there are all kinds of specialty tools and I thought maybe I was unaware of some special purpose. Who knows, maybe I'll make some mortise and tenon joints for an Alice in Wonderland house? ;-)-- David
The item has been produced on the cheap-they have omitted to "chrome" plate it!Hahhaha.
Philip,Thank you for your helpful reply. I'll look into getting it chrome plated. ;-)-- David
By the way-welcome and 1000 greetings! Tell us more about yourself-e.g on a scale 1 to 10 what is your lunacy rating and the like.
No seriously, it's good to fill in your profile so we know what's what....Philip Marcou
I have two of these Sorby chisels too, 1/4" and 3/8", and mine are both ground as yours are. As far as I can see that's how they are meant to be and having this cross section will help you ease the chisel in and out of the mortice once you've driven it into the piece with the mallet. As long as you set your mortice gauge to the bottom surface of the chisel and mark your work piece accordingly then your mortice will be chopped to that dimension.
Try them and see how you get on before consigning them to the bottom of your tool box.
Hope this helps.
Regards.
Opener
Good post! Nice if you have one the same and know what is really happenin'.. I for one just 'Scratched My Head!'
You might visit the http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com web site, click the "chisels" icon, then "mortise chisels" and finally "English Mortise Chisels by Ray Iles" to learn more about the shape of mortising chisels. This particular brand is rather pricey but the one time I have used mine it was a pleasure. And the result was great. This particular brand is intentionally tapered from the bottom to the top and from the end of the chisel to the handle. The text throughout this web site is very informative. Good luck.
Thanks Don!-- David
David,
If the Cross Section of that chisel is parallelogram shaped then definitely it is in need of chroming as it will not get shiney from use. Seriously now, I have posted a picture of one of mine-Swedish Eskilstuna.
It has a very slight taper both on the sides and on the top and bottom-but the cross-section is not parallelogram shaped.The purpose of this shape is to prevent getting it jammed when you chop deeply.
What is the makers name?
Philip Marcou
Edited 9/7/2005 3:49 am ET by philip
Edited 9/7/2005 5:56 am ET by philip
Sorry I forgot to mention earlier the mortising video by Frank Klausz. Like his others it is chocked full of info. It begins with using a mortising chisel, and sold me on the tapered chisel design. After checking the video out from our local library I finally bought it so that I can review technique every few months on the different approaches to mortising, and layout shortcuts.
Don,
As I'm in the process of trying to figure out what mortising chisel to buy could you explain the perceived advantages of the tapered design over non tapered chisels?In the meantime, I'll see if my local library carries the Klausz video, which I highly doubt.Thanks,
BBR
I'll try, but not sure how successful it'll be.
If there are four surfaces on the chisel (not counting the bevel) the bottom is the longest from handle to tip and the top is the shortest. The bottom ends at the cutting edge, and the top ends at the top of the bevel. The bottom and top are each constant widths from handle to tip, but the bottom is slightly wider than the top. This allows the user to twist the chisel slightly as it is being driven, if not perpendicular to the sides of the mortise (Klausz I think calls this "steering" the chisel.) This also makes it easier to lever the chisel front and back in the mortise to free the chips, because it is only binding in the mortise at the edges of the bottom of the chisel, not all along its sides. (I think this also makes levering less likely to tear out the edges of the mortise.)There is a second taper to a mortise chisel in that the sides (as opposed to the top and bottom) get wider from the tip to the handle. This taper makes the chisel stronger and more able to tolerate the forces imposed by levering out the chips in the mortise.The informational text (regarding mortising chisels) on http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com may explain this better.
Hello David,
I see that I got the wrong end of the stick-hence the flippant reply. I had thought that the top and bottom surfaces were skew-definitely undesirable.
I tried to make these two pics show the tapering sides. The chisel is also slightly tapered from cutting end back.
Thanks to DonStephens on the info about Ray Iles chisels it is interesting to see that he uses D2-this was also used for bayonets, as it is tough.It also holds an edge well-I used to make hunting knives from it.
THANKS! for the Pictures.. I was wonderin' what ya talkin' about...
Thanks again to all of you who responded. I will attempt to summarize the situation:
There are several aspects to this little saga:
1) I probably should have purchased a heavy duty mortise chisel, not a sash chisel as I am working with 3" x 6" redwood material (for an exterior gate). The sash chisel is really more for the relatively light work of cutting sash frames to accept mullions.
2) Nonetheless, the cross section of the chisel I received is definitely a parallelogram, not a trapezoid. If I place the chisel on its back on a flat surface and sight along the length of the chisel, it's definitely leaning to one side... and that's just not right.
3) I have had e-mail correspondence with the manufacturer. They have been very responsive and agree that the chisel cross section should be a trapezoid. They have asked that I return the item to them for replacement. I'll post an update here when the matter has been resolved -- a couple or three weeks I expect.
-- David
David, I am relieved to see that I was not being thick after all. I am also surprised that Sorby could have produced a wacky chisel like that-no wander they want it back.Is theirs made of D2 like the Ray Iles?Philip Marcou
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