Daily Grind

The demise of the Marples sash chisel has provoked a flurry of interest in the comments box. I was indeed a Bad Woodworker and levered when I should not have, but the more I think about it the more I feel the chisel was an equally Bad Chisel and gave up the struggle with rather disappointing ease. The irony is that as a side issue I was hoping to prove that you don't actually need an Oval Bolstered Mortise Chisel to successfully mortise. Hmm, maybe you don't, but old ham-fists here probably does...

Anyway that chisel isn't escaping that easily, and a lengthy spell on the hand grinder creating a fresh bevel on what is now a considerably chunkier cross-section seemed penance enough for me. (Tapered blade, see? So now it's not only shorter but a bit sturdier too.) At about halfway I was already flagging...

... but I persevered and got there in the end. Naturally I had to do further back polishing; when I did it originally I'd allowed enough up the blade to last my lifetime, which is now to be found on the shortest mortise chisel blade in the Western World. D'oh. Oh well, I'm not so sure I don't slightly prefer the shorter tool to be honest. No, not that really short 1" one - this shorter one!

Thus, albeit a trifle gingerly in comparison with my earlier cavalier attitude, I finished the mortises. Now I'm worrying whether I should have a centre rail too...

And finally a few pics to better clarify my brief comments box description of my mortising method. I'm not exactly sure why I settled on this particular one over the many others out there, but it's the one I tend to gravitate to every time. An alternative or variation is to bore the relief "cut", sometimes called the "Maynard" method after an article in The Woodworker, popularised by first Jeff Gorman and then Chris Schwarz in Woodworking magazine (Spring 2007 issue - excellent mortise & tenon-centric issue btw). The idea is to give somewhere for the waste to go. If you bore you can, of course, go full depth and subsequently chop full depth too. Or in my case break through the side of the stile due to my usually reliably unreliable hole boring... Chopping, Alf-stylee, goes more like this:

The intrepid woodworker is standing to the left, looking down the length of the stile so as to facilitate keeping the chisel, and thus the mortise, at 90°. First cut is with the bevel facing you, slightly "in" from the eventual end of the mortise (this allows for the "crush zone" where the chisel is inevitably levered against the end of the mortise and would ruin the end otherwise). One brisk tap.

Hell's bells, that looks deep; it's not really, just the wood is soft-ish. See where the area from the cut to the real end of the mortise has broken off slightly when the chisel was removed? S'one reason why you want knife or gauge marks. If that was just a pencil line then the wood would likely have splintered off beyond the finishing point; not a disaster in this case, but not neat and not good practice. In this case, because the end mark is at the bottom of the groove, I used the chisel itself to mark the line.

Now the chisel is turned round with the bevel facing away and slightly angled to cut towards the hole.


And the result; a v-shaped hole, into which subsequent waste can go.

All the subsequent cuts are bevel facing away, gradually getting deeper.

About two thirds done now, and you might be able to make out the changes of depth. By the time I got to the end I was chopping full depth. Then it's just a matter of turning the chisel round so the bevel's facing again and chopping your way back to the other end again. A paring chop (maybe two, depending on how generous you needed to be with your "crush zone") at each end on the knife line to finish up and 'tis done.


S'not probably the best way or the easiest way, but (thus far) it works for me so I'm not about to fix it :-)  No doubt the more knowledgeable will point out all the places I'm going wrong despite all I can do to stop them...  ;-)

Drowningly

So spent a little time dimensioning some stock for the doors for the you-know-what. Then groovin'...

...to end up with stiles and rails like so. Made the classic greenhorn error and used a fence face that was too deep for the narrower stiles; luckily t'was a simple matter to slip the 044 cutter into the 043 and complete the job. But still "d'oh".

Then selecting the only 1/4" mortise chisel (with a handle) that actually fitted the groove ploughed by the alleged 1/4" cutter. Viz: a Marples sash mortise chisel...

...successfully whacked out half the mortises. Well as far as I know they're successful; things going as they are, anything could reveal itself if I ever reach the tenon-fitting stage.

All was going splendidly on the other four mortises right up until this happened:

Either:
a) I don't know me own strength, guv.
b) The slight pitting on this pre-owned chisel was more serious than it appeared and weakened it slightly.
c) It hit a rather harder area of wood - possibly corroborated by the presence of a chip in the edge which wasn't there before the fatal blow.
d) Combination of two or more of the above.

I've not checked to see if it's still tempered beyond the break point (might also be a factor?) so I don't know if I can just grind a fresh bevel and carry on. Failing that I have a socket chisel of the right width (really don't want to complicate things by having different width mortises in different places, or spend my time trying to enlarge the finished ones). Only problem is it needs a handle, as do its two socketed companions, and I really didn't intend to get into a spell of chisel re-handling. After all, once started who knows when it'll end...

So other than that it all went swimmingly. After that it tended more towards going drowningly.

On the plus side, let me point out the wisdom of having alternatives available in the form of a wide variety of tools from which to choose. Hmm? See? Not always as stoopid as I look...

Things To Muse About

#72: Just how effective is the dust extraction from my bandsaw?

a) You could operate on its surfaces
b) One or two specks of dust remain
c) Not too good actually
d) A large family of beavers seem to have been putting the finishing touches to their dam-building materials within its precincts

Delete as appropriate...

Despite the ghastly nature of the task, both bandsaw and planer thicknesser are now freshly equipped with newly shining blades ready to renew the battle. The perishing planer knives played up something terrible and I had a monumental struggle to get them to set right. Hand planes are just so much easier. On the other hand the bandsaw was a positive lamb. And if I did improve the dust extraction I would kinda miss the pretty sawdust strata...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year, reader - and brace yourself for startling developments...

... I've been in the workshop!

I know, I know. Gasp, shock, horror etc. Sit down, calm yourself; it's bound not to last. But the mood was upon me and I finally got shot of a task that's been looming somewhat. Viz: turning free rubbish into free wood. See? Only been waiting since July 2006; I'm speeding up something terrible... Anyway I'd had a go at a little of it last year which was probably a mistake because a) it demonstrated to me just what a horrible job it was, b) I picked out all the easy bits thus ensuring this time it would be an even worse job, and c) in the intervening time there was added cobwebs, sawdust and stuff to clean off. D'oh.


No idea who made these alleged windows but he (or I suppose conceivably, she) must have had a many and varied selection of screws from which to choose. These three, all different, were from attaching just one of the many bits of "stuff". It's by no means the worst example; I was flitting from Phillips to slot (large and small) with brief interludes for pincers and claw hammer like some deranged butterfly. That's when I wasn't peeling off lovely rubbery bits of dark brown sealant. Peel, peel, stretchhhhhhh, PING! Where'd that go?! etc. Lovely job...


But I persevered, even after stopping for me midday vittals when it became oh-so-tempting to leave the rest for another day. The bandsaw blade became progressively more blunt and hopeless, the planer blades nicked and generally in a sorry state, but the worst of the debris was cleaned off and I can now replace said edged items with new and fresh in some hopes that I won't knacker them on the first piece of this stuff I go to use. Yeah, like that won't happen... Oh, and I wronged the oak - it really is and quite a nice wide board to boot.

Naturally the plan was that this stuff should metamorphose (with my assistance) in to saw till doors but equally naturally I'm now looking at it and wondering if there's enough for a proper project. Maybe with legs to take advantage of the thick chunks that I usually don't have...

New year, same Alf. Oh deary me.