Despite the title of this post I'm not trying to write the screenplay of Carry On Up the Hard Wood.

I was chopping a mortise into some old blackbutt this morning. Managed to get my chisel stuck at least twice (learnt to take smaller chops) but also found that I was getting bits of debris stuck, like glue, to my blade. I don't chop too many mortices so I don't know if this is a common thing generally, whether it's a hardwood thing or something peculiar to blackbutt.

It was no great problem but I did find it interesting.

Another thing I found was that I had to hone my chisel a number times as I was working. It's an old Ward and I found the edge just wasn't holding that well, seemed to be rolling over after a while.

Grand fun all the same.

Cheers,
Virg.