Thread: What are the disadvantages of using a bevel-edged chisel to chop a mortise?

Russell
Derek is right you can easily cut a mortice with a BE Chisel. But just back up here a minute. With all your recent activity on this Forum I can see that you are keen to give this woodbutchery a go. My biggest but is.......to perform tasks to components to make an article you don't necessarily have to "tool up"with brand new gear to achieve your goal. If I were you I would just do projects that interest you and use the gear that you have to complete them. You could end up spending a fortune on good gear only to realise in years time you have moved on to another totally different hobby. My advise is to move forward slowly and learn how to use the tools and look after them and make stuff that's functional and usable and get your satisfaction that way
I have been in the trade 43 years this Christmas and yes I am still buying tools. (Yes its an obsession) (There will always be something that tickles your fancy that you can't live without.)

As Derek and Rod said of course you can. The only drawbacks are that you have to be more careful in levering waste out as the BE isn't as strong and isn't made to be abused; also that you have to be more careful to keep them square in the mortise, not allowing them to twist.

Russell, I'll add another 'yes' to the others'. For years I owned not a single mortise chisel, then for many more, I had just one (a 3/8"), but I still managed to dig out many more-or-les successful mortises in other sizes with my BE chisels.

As Jimbur says, just be more careful levering out waste - the narrower bearing surface on the back of a BE will compress the wall you are levering against, so leave a few mm of waste at either end and only chop that away when the rest of the mortise is at full depth. That way you will have clean sides with no unsightly gaps. The other thing to watch for is that the thinner BE chisel may twist more, depending on the wood you are attacking, which can lead to pretty chewed-up-looking sides. That isn't good, because you want as clean sides as possible to create a nicely-fitting joint, which gives the strongest glue bond. You can pare the sides to clean them up, but even with great care & attention, you risk making non-parallel & non-vertical sides. However, you should try it for yourself - it's a rite of passage, and we all need to experience a few 'mistakes' to learn!

What Chambezio says is the same advice I give to beginners - buy the minimum set of tools you need for the immediate projects you have in mind, and make a start. As you go along, you will soon discover which tools work for you & which don't. Everyone ends up with pretty much the same core toolsfor the basic jobs (measuring, setting-out & cutting), and we express out different preferences, more with the less everyday ones. But you won't know what your preferences are untill you've gained some experience. If I'd had the cash to buy all the tools I thought I had to have 40 years ago, I would have half a shed full of things I'd rarely, if ever, use! Thankfully, I was too poor to indulge my whims until long after I began to have a better understanding of what is essential & what is luxury (or useless!).

Cheers,

In steel vs timber steel normally wins

I would not get too hung up on the chisel that you use to chop out a mortice, any chisel will work with just about any technique, far more important in my opinion is your layout markings and good shoulders on your tenon. Even if you get a sloppy fit you can always fix it by making it draw-bored as long a it has a good shoulder on the tenon.

Hi Russell

You can use a BE chisel, but it has certain disadvantages: it is more fragile if you lever the waste out, and the thin sides are vulnerable to turning in the mortice.

The easiest to use style of chisel to use is a thick-bladed mortice chisel. This is capable of levering chips without flexing, and is better able to remain square in the mortice.

If a mortice chisel is difficult to obtain - and you could get away with just a 1/4" - try and find a thicker, firmer-style chisel, which is between these two types.

Paul Sellers has a video where he compares chopping a mortice with a traditional mortice chisel and a BE chisel (which he prefers). Not everyone will agree with him, but he makes it look easy (well he is a very experienced woodie). What is helpful here is to watch how he uses a BE chisel to do this job.

Cutting a Mortise - Mortise chisel vs bevel edge chisel - with Paul Sellers - YouTube

Regards from Perth

Derek

Master Po to Caine, " BE the chisel Grasshopper. "

Re Derek's comment, the BE chisels I got do have quite thick blades, using the photos in my DK book as a reference point, their thickness is intermediate between the BE chisels and the mortise chisels.

Now, as soon as I can work out how to get the lacquer off them, I'm good to go

An extra point and probably a very important one is that a true mortise chisel tapers slightly from the tip. This is the reason why you set the mortise gauge from the chisel not by its purported width as it gets narrower as sharpened. (though it's wise anyway as chisels do often vary especially if they're old and if a manufacturer labels them with the nearest metric/imperial size to suit the buying market).

The flat sides of a mortise chisel or firmer chisel do also give a little registration against the sides of the mortise helping to keep the chisel straight

I really can't see much point in not buying proper mortise chisels with Narex ones priced the way they are!