Japanese Mortice Chisel

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MarcW

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Speaking alot mortice chisels here these days, well, is it the moonlight , I got my new one today and wanted to show you. Strange :shock:

I thought japanese ones are not common and the size isn't too. But as I'm delighted by my Ioroi bench chisels, I couldn't resist inviting this one at my shop. :mrgreen: It's a 15 mm wide, i.e. 14.9 at the tip and 14.65 5cm down it. Blade length is 8 cm. Blade thickness at the bevel's end is almost 1 cm. Bevel angle 35° outta the box, well no box at all, merely a plastic protector. The handle is 27 mm thick, it's substantial, I like it alot, it's the right size for me.

japmortch_3.jpg


The second pic shows it inbetween a normal japanese beveled chisel of the same width and a smaller (13 mm) Robert Sorby mortice chisel. The edges on the sockets weren't that ergonomic, so I filed them off after sharpening and the whole looks like this right now.

japmortch_1.jpg


The sides are told to be parallel but not square. They are a little bit off.

japmortch_2.jpg


I scraped off the varnish and mushroomed the end of the handle. Then I sharpened the chisel on a steel plate with first 50 grit Silicium Carbide powder, then 180 grit and finally with the blank steel plate. There were some blunt places at the tip so I went back in grit to a 800 King and polished finally on a 8000 grit waterstone. I finished the handle and the steel then with camelia oil.

japmortch_6.jpg
japmortch_5.jpg
japmortch_4.jpg


Finally I tried it in oak, but can't say much. No I won't go buy a heavier hammer. [-( Even if the steep bevel angle brakes the movement, it bites well in the wood. I suppose the eased sides help from binding. It's alot more easier to mortice with this chisel than with the beveled bench version. It will be fun to compare to the Robert Sorby chisels and clear out some differences.

Regards and thanks for sharing,

Marc

 
MarcW":3goue2ig said:
The edges on the sockets weren't that ergonomic, so I filed them off
Hmm, they appear to have been actually square. That seems a bit, well, odd. :-s Thanks for the pics and such, Marc - always helpful to get "up close". :D

Cheers, Alf
 

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