are there any decent techniques for squaring a chisel blade?

[Reggie]

Yes, I do have a drill, but no drill press, as you can probably tell, I'm not at all confident in my 'lining stuff up correctly skills', clearly these are things I have to master I'm sure I'll be ok with these once they've at least been honed correctly.

Jacob, sort of, it was suggested that I adjust the angle of the chisel to the wood and me countering with the logic of doing that.

As for having a square, I have 3 of them, it's what got me into this in the first place, who knew a square and a sharpie could cause so much angst? and yes, the square is actually square, all 3 of them are, checked on wednesday, more angst overcome :-D

I'd been practising on the wonky chisel (the one that has a bow in the blade) before these arrived, so I'm reasonably confident about getting the honing right.

 

[Richard T]

Three square squares - Hooray! You could also use a couple to check the verticallitude of whatever you are boring with in absence of a drill press.
I did this a lot when timber framing.

 

[Reggie]

Thanks Richard, It's really down to practice and confidence, my previous attempts at making holes in things have been done out of necessity, with less tools than I have now with mainly poor results, 2 weeks ago I hadn't picked up a chisel in nearly 30 years, now I am determined to at least teach myself the basics, it's just remembering and recognising all the transferable techniques such as using a square, I did this for a compound sliding mitre saw the other day.

 

[nanscombe]

I was just suggesting using a drill as it would allow you to remove a significant quantity of wood before having to use your chisels to clean up the mortices.

As for the "non-square" chisels, don't forget the blade of Madame Guillotine wasn't square either but still managed to cut straight :shock: , as long as it was suitably directed.

 

[Noel]

Reggie, reference an earlier post, put in your approximate location in your profile, there could well be somebody down the road that is willing to help you and/or has the proper tools to sort you out and I'm sure you'll learn a lot too.

 

[Reggie]

I've updated my profile with a location, sorry about that, I'm a bit shy

So, here's the plan for later today, I've picked the 3 best looking chisels out of the 7 (there are 3 x 1", 2 x 3/4" and 2 x 1/2"), I'll give them a quick hone and see how I get on.

With regard to using a drill to get the bulk of the wood out, I don't mind doing that in the future but I'd really like to learn to use a chisel, it can't be that hard, can it? Especially now I've had all this advice

 

[Jacob]

There's a neat demo of morticing without a mortice chisel here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_NXq7_TILA
Definitely stick with the chisel - drilling out doesn't speed up small mortices it makes them more difficult. Not essential but it can help with bigger ones (say 1" wide or more?) where the technique is quite different.
I've cut letter box slots with chisel alone - basically a V groove around the edge and prize out the middle in big chunks - quite different from mortice chisel morticing.

 

[Reggie]

Oh Jacob, you know me so well!! I have watched that particular video about 3 times now and a few of his other videos too, I find Mr. Sellers to be easy to listen to and watch, his little comment that he seems to like cracks me up too 'While I've stood here and done this, you'd still be looking for your router bit'. It also brought me back down to earth after I'd had a load of power tools donated to me and showed me that whilst power tools have their places, hand tools are equally valid, it's really all about picking the right tools for the job.

It's actually his videos that gave me the confidence to try the 'wonky' chisel and to practice honing it until the other chisels arrived.

It's interesting to note that the piece of glass and Paul's technique perfectly illustrate what I meant about having the chisel tilted sideways, either the glass would break or the mortice wall would give, not so important as you pointed out if the mortice doesn't go all the way through as the face of the mortice would be hidden.

Looking at that video again, I'm wondering whether that piece of wood was specifically chosen for this demo, it seems that the grain assists the method very well in this instance?

 

[AndyT]

Looking at that video again, I'm wondering whether that piece of wood was specifically chosen for this demo, it seems that the grain assists the method very well in this instance?

I expect it was carefully chosen. But if so, that illustrates an important point. Choosing suitable materials is not cheating; it's part of the skill of making things from wood.
At the most basic level that will mean choosing the right species for the job but it can quite soon mean learning to cut out and orient components so that a knot can be avoided or so that the grain slopes the right way for a moulding to be planed or so that parts will only move in the same direction as each other.

 

[Reggie]

Indeed, it struck me fairly quickly the other day that the ease of what is happening is the flat edge is almost doing a horizontal cut and using the grain to help as he flicks his wrist.

 

[Reggie]

I should also mention that I made a very reasonable 1/2 inch through mortice earlier on, without re-honing anything. I clearly need more practice with that technique as I'm fairly inefficient and don't have the proper feel for the hammer blows yet but all in all I'm very happy with the result

 

[Phil Pascoe]

:shock: Hammer?

 

[G S Haydon]

Reggie, if it's a plastic handled carpenters type chisel then FWIW I use a hammer too, 20z estwing claw to be precise (mallet on fine chisels or wooden handles). Great work on the mortice!

 

[Reggie]

They are plastic handled carpenters chisels, however, I should've said 'I don't have a proper feel for the lump of scrap pine blows' but I suspect the reaction would've been very similar, something like:

:shock: lump of scrap pine?

I know, I know, a proper chisel striking implement is on my list of things to get within the next week, in fact, it's the only thing, although I hadn't settled on a specific one yet.

 

[G S Haydon]

A hammer is a proper tool . All about context ;-)

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I was only joking, although I tend to use a mallet even on structural work because I find it easier.

 

[Benchwayze]

I'd just ignore it but put a bit of bias into your sharpening to correct it until (years later) they are all straight.
If you actually use them, eventually you will chip an edge and need to regrind, in which case you just present it at 90º to the wheel or whatever and true it up, before grinding a new bevel.

I don't often agree with Jacob, but it seems to be a new habit! Unless your chisel is a great amount out of square, (In which case regrind it, or use it as a skew chisel :mrgreen then Jacob's right.

 

[dg2000r]

I'm reasonably new to this lark myself so can't give the expert advice that these guys can, but thought I'd just add - As useful as the internet is for learning things like this, you'll soon realise that some people on the web get very carried away by the tiny details, and it's easy to get dragged down into thinking that your tools aren't ready to use unless they are tuned to absolute perfection. Quite simply, that's not the case - your tools will naturally improve over time, as will the rest of your work, as you try things out and make little changes. You'll soon realise what difference a less than perfectly square chisel will make, and as a beginner you'll probably find it's absolutely fine as it is. There is so much to learn in woodworking, I think it helps to not get bogged down in details too early - time is far better spent on practicing your techniques, with whatever tools you have available. As long as it has a sharp edge on it, it'll be fine for a while, and you'll naturally know when you outgrow it as you'll start to notice that's it's not doing what you want it to.

 

[Reggie]

Actually, this wasn't anyone else that made me think that I wanted square chisels, it was plain logic, they're made square, I expected to receive them square, if I'm trying to cut to a line, a sloped blade on an upright chisel will over/undercut the mark As I've now been told it shouldn't matter, I am happy to accept that, so it's more aesthetic now than anything else but I'm sure I'll get over that irritation in time or they'll get reground. I wasn't going to not use them because they're not square though

 

[bugbear]

..it was plain logic, they're made square, I expected to receive them square, if I'm trying to cut to a line, a sloped blade on an upright chisel will over/undercut the mark

Further, I bet you've never seen a woodworking tutorial in print or on the net where the chisel isn't square. Square is a reasonable goal.

BugBear