Lee Valley mortising chisels and other mortising musings..long...pics....

[Terry Hatfield]

I've been preping to start on the dining table/china cabinet/chairs project this weekend. Sorting lumber and cleaning the shop etc.,.. One thing that I knew was considering that I am going to build 10 dining chairs and of course that are all white oak with a million motises that I needed to get the mortiser ready to go. I ordered some of the Janapese chisels from Lee Valley because I had never been very happy with the stock Delta chisels that I have been using. Even after sharpening and messing with them a bunch, they just didn't perform very well especially in this very hard white oak. Norm makes it look easy. I usually just make a mess. :D

Well, the chisels came a couple of days ago and it didn't take long to see the LV chisles are quite a bit different than the Delta ones. The frist thing I noticed was how the chip ejection slot was milled in the chisel body. The LV is on the bottom of the photo. Much more area for the chips to escape on the LV. Chips wedged inside the chisel body has been a constant issue with the other chisels. The drill bits included in the chisel sets are virtually identical between the LV and the Delta with the exception of the LV being fluted all the way up to the chip ejection hole which I am sure makes a big difference in the performance. Speaking of the drill bits, the LV are too long for my Delta mortiser but cutting them off was a simple procedure. Hacksaw, file, done.


http://terryhatfield.com/album/4/51138790.jpg

The next thing I noticed was how the inside of the chisel body was machined. The Delta is round on the insiide and the LV is acutally machined square and the sides are very thin compared to the Delta. You can also see that the angle of the grind is much different from the LV to the Delta. LV actually sells sharpening cones that are made for this specific angle as the standard ones won't work with this angle. I bought those as well as I'm sure I'll need to at least touch them up at some point during this process.

http://terryhatfield.com/album/4/2942388.jpg


Here is my mortising setup...

http://terryhatfield.com/album/4/38518488.jpg

I am using the Rockler Dust Right hose attached at the gate that I use for the drum sander with just the regular Dust Right handle on the hose. I simply laid it on the back of the mortiser and turned the chip slot toward the nozzle and it captures nearly every chip. Very cool!!!

http://terryhatfield.com/album/4/28095082.jpg


Here are a couple of mortises. Here's just the end of a very long 3/8 mortise that I was making to get that chisel setup properly. Once everything was properly set it was amazing how easy the mortiser made these plunges. The old bits were always a 2 hand operation. The LV's are one hand and very easy compared to the Delta chisels. The mortise is very celan with very little roughness in the side walls.

http://terryhatfield.com/album/4/87532023.jpg

Here's on in 1/4". Also amazingly little effort to make the plunge and the mortise looks pretty sweet to me anyhow.

http://terryhatfield.com/album/4/40066809.jpg

All in all I am super pleased with the bits. They are here...

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=53252&cat=1,180,42240,53317

I am looking much more forward to making 10 chairs now that I have these chisels in my mortiser!!!

Thanks for looking. Hope everyone had a great Easter!!!

Terry

[Terry Welty]

Thanks Terry,

Great write up... It appears there is a future for my mortiser after all... where did you get the cool roller on the front of the mortiser...
Terry

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks Terry,

Great write up... It appears there is a future for my mortiser after all... where did you get the cool roller on the front of the mortiser...
Terry

Thanks Terry. I know that having these chisels will enable me to use mine more instead of hunting some other way to make mortises. The table is from Rockler...

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10173&filter=mortising%20table

It really enhances the use of the mortiser. You could make one of course but for $50, I just bought one.

t

[Cody Colston]

Thanks for the writeup, Terry. I've been looking to replace my stock Delta mortising chisels, too. I'll check out the Lee Valley link.

[Eddie Watkins]

Very informative, Terry. Thanks.

[Matt Winterowd]

Interesting, Terry. One of the mags did a comparison review of different chisels a while back. As I recall, they basically concluded that they were all the same and it wasn't worth the money to buy the more expensive sets. Your observations make a lot of sense, though. I wish I could find that article...

[Jim Rimmer]

Great write up. Thanks.

[Ellen Benkin]

Thanks for the write up. This is exactly the kind of info I hope to get from the magazine reviews but usually don't. I would like to see a comparison of the mortises made by each of the two chisels, though. Any chance you can post those? See? No good deed goes unpunished. Thanks again.

[Kirk Poore]

There are (or were, anyway) two styles of Delta hollow chisels, the cheap ones and the expensive ones. I never had any of the cheap ones, but the one expensive one I had did have a square interior and was made in Austria. I can only presume that circular interior one is the cheap type. I've had chisels from Greenlee, Delta, Jet, a Japanese brand bought from CGG Schmitt, and a no-name Asian one, and I've never seen anything like that round interior.

Kirk

[Dave Cav]

Nice write up. I have some of the LV chisels and I agree they work well.

Have you tried using end stops when cutting the mortises? Use a fence longer than your workpiece with a stop at each end to index each end of the mortise. It makes cutting them a lot faster.

[Alan Schwabacher]

The article in Fine Woodworking #185 (Master the mortiser) that compared mortise chisels did say you could make almost any of them work well, but not that they'd work well as you bought them. The author had a fairly extensive tuneup procedure for the chisels and the bits.

He did point out that the Lee Valley ones came well set up. To him that was not so important, possibly because he was pretty good at tuning after so much experience. My guess is that the space in the squared-off corners inside the chisels makes a big difference in keeping them running smoothly and cool. Filing out the corners in a round one was suggested, and is a real pain on other chisels.

There is a video on the FWW website, that does an excellent job of showing how to tune up chisels and bits, but it requires a paid subscription to the web extras to watch it.

[Van Huskey]

I have thought about them in the past now I know the LV ones are worth the money. Thanks!

[Terry Hatfield]

Thanks for the write up. This is exactly the kind of info I hope to get from the magazine reviews but usually don't. I would like to see a comparison of the mortises made by each of the two chisels, though. Any chance you can post those? See? No good deed goes unpunished. Thanks again.

The end result is not much different, It's the ease of the process that was so much better with the LV. The mortises with the other chisels were fine but a lot harder to make.

t

[Terry Hatfield]

The article in Fine Woodworking #185 (Master the mortiser) that compared mortise chisels did say you could make almost any of them work well, but not that they'd work well as you bought them. The author had a fairly extensive tuneup procedure for the chisels and the bits.

He did point out that the Lee Valley ones came well set up. To him that was not so important, possibly because he was pretty good at tuning after so much experience. My guess is that the space in the squared-off corners inside the chisels makes a big difference in keeping them running smoothly and cool. Filing out the corners in a round one was suggested, and is a real pain on other chisels.

There is a video on the FWW website, that does an excellent job of showing how to tune up chisels and bits, but it requires a paid subscription to the web extras to watch it.

I have the subscription already. I'll go there and check it out. Thanks!

[Terry Hatfield]

Nice write up. I have some of the LV chisels and I agree they work well.

Have you tried using end stops when cutting the mortises? Use a fence longer than your workpiece with a stop at each end to index each end of the mortise. It makes cutting them a lot faster.

I have Dave. Once I get the setup laid out I will use the stops since I have to make 300ish mortises during this project and I'm looking for anything to make it go aster.

[Terry Hatfield]

There are (or were, anyway) two styles of Delta hollow chisels, the cheap ones and the expensive ones. I never had any of the cheap ones, but the one expensive one I had did have a square interior and was made in Austria. I can only presume that circular interior one is the cheap type. I've had chisels from Greenlee, Delta, Jet, a Japanese brand bought from CGG Schmitt, and a no-name Asian one, and I've never seen anything like that round interior.

Kirk

Interesting Kirk. I have no expereice with any chisels except the chisles I have. All of my old ones are round on the inside.

[Terry Welty]

Thanks Terry. I know that having these chisels will enable me to use mine more instead of hunting some other way to make mortises. The table is from Rockler...

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10173&filter=mortising%20table

It really enhances the use of the mortiser. You could make one of course but for $50, I just bought one.

t

Terry, thanks for the update... I'm looking at improving my mortiser and am going with either your idea or this-

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=32997

any thoughts?

[Terry Hatfield]

Terry, thanks for the update... I'm looking at improving my mortiser and am going with either your idea or this-

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/Displayitem.taf?itemnumber=32997

any thoughts?

I did consider doing something similar when I first got my mortiser. Should work well as the big mortisers have a similar setup. The cross vise would hold the workpiece very securely and dead vertical so that would be a really good deal. That is the only draw back with the Rockler table is that you have to hold the workpiece against the fence which would be a non-issue wiith the vise. Forward and aft adjustment for motises that are wider than the chisels would be easier and more accurate with the cross vise as well.

Personally, I have been really happy with the Rockler setup but it would be nice to have the vise.

t