Guide to Buying a Woodworking Mortise Chisel

[Music] thanks for watching wood and Shop I'm Joshua farmsworth so getting started in traditional woodworking requires uh a basic set of hand tools down the road you'll get a lot of other hand tools but I've compiled a list of just the basics you need to get started which is nice especially if you're on a budget so on on this uh on this video I'm going to talk about mortise chisels so you'll notice I'm just holding one mortise chisel I'll tell you why that is in just a minute but uh mortise chisels are used primarily for cutting mortises for mortise and Tenon joinery you can see here this Tenon I have that was sticking into this mortise mortise and tenin are used in almost everything you're going to make uh and so it's really important to have a way to chop those mortises out bum bum bum like that that hole in there um so you're going to need at least one mortise chisel and when I say at least I mean that's probably all you need uh I made the mistake originally of buying a whole set of mortise chisels that were kind of a popular set that I that I was seeing people buy but then as I got going down the road I realized that a quarter a quarter inch or 5/16 inch or something around that is all that you really need because most of the mortises you're ever going to chop are only about a quarter of an inch uh if you ever need any other size down the road I haven't but if you ever if you ever do you you can buy it at that time uh so this was some strange fraction in like N9 some 30 seconds I I don't know exactly but it works out to be around a quarter inch so so just look around um this particular style is is the nickname is called a pig sticker it's a traditional English style uh Tang chisel Tang meaning that uh that the uh the metal piece goes up in here whereas socket it would it would cover it would cover the uh the handle but uh it's very beefy and it it it makes a lot shorter work of pounding down in here whereas there there's also sash mortise chisels which are smaller than this uh they work as well but they're not as they're not as strong for just you know what a mortising chisel is meant to be for mortising uh so there's uh there's only one modern version that I'm aware of uh that is I've heard really good things about I bought this vintage uh for about I don't know $30 you could probably find them cheaper if you look around flea markets or whatnot but if you check out my chisel buying guide uh there's a link or button below this video uh you can see uh some great places to find good deals on these chisels uh as well as what to look for features Brands and whatnot uh and uh I hope that will help you a lot and remember just start off with one don't be tempted to buy a whole set of mortise chisels I'm going to save you money here uh so if if this video was helpful then please subscribe with that little blue button up there so you can see more videos on getting started in traditional woodworking uh and also check out the other tools on this list uh of what tools you need for getting started so thanks for watching

Channel: Wood and Shop

Views: 16,117

Keywords: woodwork, woodworking, traditional woodworking, roy underhill, woodwright's shop, chris schwarz, lie-nielsen, hand planes, hand saws, chisels, Mortise And Tenon, Wood Carving (xyloglyphy) (Hobby), Chisel

Id: ASPo0_Lbh_4

Length: 3min 28sec (208 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 19 2014