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  • 19 March 2019 at 7:16 pm #555616
    neil grayson
    Participant

    HI,

    Not sure if this is in the right forum or not but I can but try.

    OK so I am slightly younger than Paul and the last real woodwork I did was at school a long time ago. I actually love it and now I am retired getting back into it.

    I am building a Paul Sellers workbench and I am finding that as I chop the mortises the chisel ( Lidl prepared the Paul Sellers way) twists on me no matter how tightly I grip it.

    Is it just me? Am I weak or could it be that the chisel bevel is slightly off and that’s the cause?

    Any one else been through this or got any suggestions?
    Neil

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    19 March 2019 at 9:17 pm #555617
    neil grayson
    Participant

    Please ignore this. Although I searched for previous entries on mortises on the forum I found none. When I googled it tooke me to a page on this forum. Go Figure.

    Anyway I have my answer.

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    19 March 2019 at 9:48 pm #555618
    Sven-Olof Jansson
    Participant

    With or without a honing guide, a skew bevel or edge easily occurs. You have probably noticed that as the edge is hammered down the bevel pushes the iron along the mortice breaking the “chop” free. A skew bevel will inevitably twist the chisel during that push, no matter what.

    Being at best an acceptably mediocre woodworker, I find mortising easier with a guide and a flat side mortise chisel that required no preparation before use. Won’t work for mortices >½” though.

    /Sven-Olof

    PS
    Sorry Neil, didn’t see your 2nd message before hitting submint

    Sven-Olof Jansson
    London, UK; Boston, MA

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    21 March 2019 at 10:49 am #555632
    Benoît Van Noten
    Participant

    If the chisel is not sharp enough, it will follow the path of least resistance. Pine in particular is far from isotropic.

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    21 March 2019 at 1:58 pm #555633
    deanbecker
    Participant

    Take smaller bites. They are easier to resist if they twist

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    21 March 2019 at 5:51 pm #555635
    neil grayson
    Participant

    Many thanks for the replies.

    I will be checking all of them to try to better understand my technique.

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    23 March 2019 at 3:11 pm #555660
    Benoît Van Noten
    Participant

    “smaller bites”
    That is a more practical answer than mine.
    P. S. has an excellent video where he is chopping mortises behind a glass.
    Capital video in my opinion.

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    29 March 2019 at 4:52 pm #555704
    Mic van Reijen
    Participant

    When I googled it tooke me to a page on this forum. Go Figure.

    Anyway I have my answer.

    Out of interest, what page did you find?

    Mic

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    30 March 2019 at 9:23 pm #555707
    neil grayson
    Participant

    Sorry for the late reply. I had to find it again.

    Here you go.

    https://woodworkingmasterclasses.com/discussions/topic/what-causes-chisels-to-twist-when-chopping-mortises/

    Neil

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