SDS wood chisels - why??

[joe-90]

I suppose you still have to finish off by hand?

Too much information.

 

[Dave54]

Any chisel will make a square edged mortise. Needs to sharp though.

Dedicated mortise chisels have a very heavy shank that is straight on it's side (to maintain directional stability) but tapers along it's length. These chisels are intended to stand up to being rapped deeply into the stock, and then being used to lever out the waste.

I drill the mortise out using spades either in the bench drill or using a wolf alingment guide on a drill. Then finish with ordinary chisels.

Dedicated mortice chisels are possibly less use than an ordinary chisel IMO unless you're using them as intended, doing all the work with them by making a V shaped cut from the centre of the mortice, and working outward both ways towards the ends, gradually deepening as you go. If you're drilling out most if the waste a couple of bevel edge chisels are probably better, a wider one for the sides, and one somewhere near the width of the mortice to clean out the ends.

Really if you've got many to do, you can't beat a chisel mortiser.

 

[Norcon]

True. Last mortises I did were into 120mm material. My hollow chisel mortiser didn't have that capacity unfortuanetly.

 

[joe-90]

You can get some stonking old oak handled mortice chisels on Ebay. They are way better than bevel edge for that sort of work.

 

[Dave54]

True. Last mortises I did were into 120mm material. My hollow chisel mortiser didn't have that capacity unfortuanetly.

Same here. I've got a relatively small Multico bench top morticer. Good kit, great for framed furniture, but not very big capacity. I used to end up doing anything bigger by hand. Often with the work I used to do the joint would be a feature anyway, so I'd need to hand finish it anyway to get it to look clean. Doesn't take long really.

 

[maltaron]

If you keep searching on E-bay you can often find original Ernest Marples boxwood handled chisels. These hold an edge better than any modern ones, and stand any amount of use but only with a wooden mallet.