Lie-Nielsen Bevel Edge Chisels
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Tagged: Morticing Lie-Nielsen
- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 5 months, 3 weeks ago by Sven-Olof Jansson.
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Hi all,
I recently acquired a few LN chisels second hand (but unused). I bought them primarily to see how they felt in the hand in comparison to my old marples boxwood chisels.
I was wondering if anyone has used them successfully for hand morticing? I know they sell separate mortice chisels, but as Paul shows, mortises can be chopped with bevel edge chisels when used with sensitivity. Most people seem to reserve LN chisels for paring and light chopping, but as they’re a socketed and are ground with a steeper bevel, can they be used for heavier duty applications?
Look forward to hearing your own experiences.
Do you mean their bevel edged chisels? I bought a set a long time ago. The first problem I had was that the blades would randomly fall off of the handles. Others reported using hairspray and various other tricks to deal with this, but none of it worked reliably, so I finally epoxied the handles on, tired of jumping out of the way and watching the chisel fall to the concrete.
The second problem I had with the chisels is the A2 steel. It took longer to sharpen than O1. More importantly, I found that I had to put a steeper bevel on them to keep them from crumbling when chopping across the grain, e.g., for mortises and dovetails. That’s not a huge problem, but does mean the chisel may try to walk back into your knife wall more than a chisel with a smaller angle.
Bottom line, yes, I’ve chopped mortises. Despite my complaints, they are perfectly fine chisels. If you are bridging your knife lines, give yourself some more room. If you see edge failure, steepen the angle a little. They should work fine. A2, being harder, is more brittle so I suppose there might be more of a chance of braking one when levering out chips, but if you are mortising properly and sensitively, this shouldn’t be an issue. If you have to pry hard, your chips are too big or you’re stuck in a ledge on the bottom or something. Don’t do that. 🙂
9 November 2023 at 8:01 pm #818610Having the complete set of LN mortice chisels, bevel edged ones, and their fishtails; and used them for a number of years: it is perhaps not totally inappropriate for me to vent an opinion – the more so as I also have experience from the chisels from R. Sorby, H. Taylor, Narex, Veritas, and some other best forgotten brands.
Though I use the mortice chisels whenever possible, it is mainly because the sides are square to the back, which makes the use of a mortice guide very beneficial; the bevel edged ones are subjected to many more hammer blows – mainly in quite dense woods – which probably seated the handles in their sockets. As LN do not offer traditional paring chisels, I think it is welcome that the short handles can be replaced with longer ones, which improve my work.
I value that these chisels come at their pre-specified dimensions. The backs are flat, obfuscating the need for fettling, and their widths within very narrow tolerances. When combined with “Tite-Mark’s” mortice gauge wheels, all mortices start at a width congruent with that of the chisel – a happy state that I usually ruin. My tools from other manufacturers, also premium ones, have significantly wider tolerances.
A2 steel is probably more brittle than O1, which maybe explain why LN recommends adding a 5 degree additional secondary bevel for better edge retention, and perhaps also to reduce the need for sharpening, though edge retention is in comparison very good. Yet, even someone as mediocre as I find sharpening the LN blades and chisels more challenging than for their 01 counterparts. Thankfully I’ve been presented with a leather wheel, which prolongs the time between visits to the sharpening stones.
One aspect – which perhaps does not aid in mortising – of LN chisels is that the bevels extend all the way to the backs, which might be of relevance when clearing out non-square corners.
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