The Maynard mortise technique

[lowell holmes]

The Maynard technique is spelled out by Chris Schwarz in the Spring 2007 Woodworking Magazine. You can Google it and download a .pdf file of his article. I'm curious how many of you use it. I've tried it and like it, but often I just chop away.

I sure miss the Woodworking magazine. I'm sure it is a chore to keep fresh content.

[Jim Matthews]

I was taught to use much the same method,
where the "bevel leads the way" to the bottom.

I think the shearing action of the flat chisel back is
aided by the bevel being "pushed" be reaction force
that develops in the compressed wood fibers.

For me the challenge of mortising by hand is twofold:

Keeping the blade driving perpendicular to the face side of the leg being mortised.

Predictable elbow pain from chopping.

I've migrated to a method using a Jessem tenoning gizmo
and cleaning up the ends with a few paring strokes.

I can saw by hand, all day.
I can plane until the late afternoon.

Chopping - that's right out.

[Daniel Rode]

I'm curious about the elbow pain from chopping. Is it from swinging the mallet, holding and levering the chisel or something else?

I occasionally aggravate elbow tendinitis when planing but it's normally caused by poor technique when working out. As for chopping, I've never felt anything. It doesn't even bother the tendinitis. Perhaps it's just that I haven't done enough mortises in a day to feel the effects?

[ken hatch]

The Maynard technique is spelled out by Chris Schwarz in the Spring 2007 Woodworking Magazine. You can Google it and download a .pdf file of his article. I'm curious how many of you use it. I've tried it and like it, but often I just chop away.

I sure miss the Woodworking magazine. I'm sure it is a chore to keep fresh content.

I kinda tried to google the CS article, ended up here: http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/cSchwarz/mortChisel/mortChis3.asp .

Which confirmed my thoughts on mortices. Nothing beats an English pig sticker for chopping mortices. How you use it....that's technique, I tend to start in the middle with the bevel vertical and work towards each end but working from end to end works as well.

[Derek Cohen]

I did not know this method by a name (Maynard), however this is how I do it.

There is a tutorial on my website if Chris' is not enough: http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/MorticingByChisel.html

http://www.inthewoodshop.com/Furniture/MorticingByChisel_html_m4bc31133.jpg

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Justin Green]

The project I'm working on now has called for a fair bit of mortising, and I have been learning what I saw Mr. Under hill do, which is start a bit out from the near side of the mortise with the bevel away from you. Progress the chisel a little at a time, working your way to the far end of the mortise, then reverse the chisel and march back down the line. With the moderately priced Narex mortise get chisels, this went rather fast for me. In fact, a few bloopers were almost through mortises before I checked the depth. Will be interesting to try one of the other methods.

[Tom M King]

For those with any kind of arm pain from chopping mortises, get a Wood-is-Good mallet, or one of the other urethane head mallets. I have used one all day several times, and never had any kind of pain, or damage to a chisel handle. I use a 12 oz. for bench chisels, and a 30 oz. for timber framing.

[Jim Koepke]

My experience with pain came from trying to hold the mallet too tight and making my arm do the work. Easing the grip and letting the mallet have a little free swing has helped a lot. Now there is less transfer of shock from the mallet swinging freely and less pain in my wrist, elbow and shoulder.

it is similar to how one grips a saw. A light grip allows the saw to follow its own path instead of a super grip steering the saw.

Strong grip transfers unwanted information.

Light grips let the tools take the punishment or follow their path.

jtk

[lowell holmes]

I like Derek's method of sizing the width of the mortise with a chisel and then marking the edges. I'll try it tomorrow while waiting on the turkey.

[Jim Matthews]

I play tennis, frequently. I'm careful, and can chop dovetails or dadoes or pare without discomfort. I think it's the "back swing" and dead stop at the bottom of the swing that set me off.

[Kees Heiden]

I use this technique shown by Paul Sellers. But whatever he sais about bevel edged chisels for this work, I vastly prefere real mortising ones.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_NXq7_TILA&list=UUc3EpWncNq5QL0QhwUNQb7w

Drilling a straight hole exactly in between two marking lines isn't my forte. Just using the chisel is easier for me.

[Roger Rettenmeier]

Hi Derek, I have looked at several of your tutorials, and always find them helpful.

Thanks , and thanks to the other veteran SMC woodworkers for the great information

Roger

[Derek Cohen]

Thanks Roger.

Regards from Perth

Derek

[Jim Matthews]

I like Derek's method of sizing the width of the mortise with a chisel and then marking the edges.

That's the way I was taught, too.
The only thing that needs adjustment with this method
is the mating tenon. That's easier to do, being out in the open.

[lowell holmes]

I have always set a mortise gage by holding a chisel up to it,and then marking the mortise.
Dereks method of placing the chisel where you want the mortise to be and making a mark
that is used to set the gage to both width and offset looks much smarter. I will be playing with it today.

[Warren Mickley]

I have always set a mortise gage by holding a chisel up to it,and then marking the mortise.
Dereks method of placing the chisel where you want the mortise to be and making a mark
that is used to set the gage to both width and offset looks much smarter. I will be playing with it today.

Charles Holtzapffel mentioned in his 1843 book that some workers set the mortising gauge by the chisel and some by using an imprint of the chisel on wood. However, I think you would still want a precise measure for the distance to the fence, which I would do with a rule. Especially for a cabinet door or for sash you want the fence carefully set.

In the 18th century workers usually had fixed point mortising gauges. This system is nice because you can fine tune the distance between the points with a file to suit each individual mortise chisel. It is much more efficient than having to set the gauge each time. These can be seen in Diderot, Roubo etc. In the Seaton chest (1797) there are two gauges that have four pairs of pins in their beams, each pair corresponding to a specific mortise chisel.

[lowell holmes]

Charles Holtzapffel mentioned in his 1843 book that some workers set the mortising gauge by the chisel and some by using an imprint of the chisel on wood. However, I think you would still want a precise measure for the distance to the fence, which I would do with a rule. Especially for a cabinet door or for sash you want the fence carefully set. In the 18th century workers usually had fixed point mortising gauges.



I went to the shop this morning and set the mortise by a chisel imprint on the wood. I set the mortise gage by the imprint. I do like that method.

However, you have started me to thinking. Pop Wood ran an article on making marking gages. I made several , one was set to 3/8". I may have to make a 1/2" gage set to the chisel and go that route.

[Steve Voigt]

In the 18th century workers usually had fixed point mortising gauges. This system is nice because you can fine tune the distance between the points with a file to suit each individual mortise chisel. It is much more efficient than having to set the gauge each time. These can be seen in Diderot, Roubo etc. In the Seaton chest (1797) there are two gauges that have four pairs of pins in their beams, each pair corresponding to a specific mortise chisel.

I really need to make some of these. For some time I have used the technique popularized by Phil Lowe, where you saw the tenon a bit fat, then set the chisel in the gauge lines and trim. For me, 90% of success with this technique is down to having the distance between gauge lines set just right. Having fixed gauges would be a big help.

Warren, last year I read your description on wood central of "riding the bevel," and that really improved my mortising technique. Thanks for the tip.

[Kees Heiden]

Using the chisel imprint to set the marking gauge is technique I remember from Follansbee's blog or book. He not only uses this to set the mortise width, but also the position from the edge. Using the rule of thirds (the mortice is one third of the width of the style) he first makes a mark from the edge to about one third of the style, then sets a second mark which marks the width of the mortise. That's all the precision he needs presumably, and it seems to have been a technique from the 17th century. But I also seem to remember a simple mortise gauge with a fixed distance from the edge and two fixed pins.

[Kees Heiden]

Here's the fixed mortise gauge:

https://pfollansbee.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/fixed-mortise-gauge-w-ruler.jpg?w=510&h=476

https://pfollansbee.wordpress.com/2011/07/19/a-simple-mortise-gauge-and-some-mail/

[Tom M King]

Just because this is the only picture of one of my mortising chisels I have.... This is an Ulmia that I bought new a good while back. They are tapered in both directions, and I like them a lot. This piece of wood is to replace a rotted out bottom rail on a 20 foot long wainscot in an 1828 house. The stiles were mortised into the rails top and bottom. The baseboard was separate under the wainscoting, so I just pulled the baseboard off, and dropped the bottom rail straight down, so as not to risk damaging the rest of the big panel, or the old plaster above.

The interesting thing to me was that no two mortises were anything like the same spacing from either edge. You may be able to see the mortise behind me that's really close to the inside edge of the board. I set the old one, laying down on the sawhorses, beside the replacement Heart Pine piece, and marked the new mortises by the old ones. The surface of the replacement board was planed once we finished the mortises, and it all went right back together.

Since the mortises were different distances from the edges (all the tenons were 1/2" thick but shoulders were different), I just set a combination square to match the old mortise relative to the face of the stile, marked that location of the mortise off the face of the new board, and the width of the chisel, which matched the old mortise widths, did all the rest of the measuring necessary, with just the one mark that mattered.

I never had given any thought one way or another to any particular method. You just want to get the wood out of the hole without messing up the ends. I don't remember ever thinking consciously about it other than maybe while I'm doing it. It goes so quickly, that it doesn't seem to me that the amount of time saved, one way or the other, is worth the time thinking about it.

edited to add: you really can't tell much about the details in the picture that's downsized to be able to post it here. If you are interesting in seeing it, you can find a full sized version, along with other steps in that project on the "woodworking" page on my website.

[lowell holmes]

It's easy to see that you are comfortable chopping mortises and that you know exactly what you are going to do.

[Brian Holcombe]

He mentions that its the same technique between both chisels, but in fact the bevel is facing the opposite direction in the bench chisel demo. I wonder how the result would be with a mortise chisel of a different variety (something less unwieldy) and utilizing the same small bites and direction.

[Warren Mickley]

Using the chisel imprint to set the marking gauge is technique I remember from Follansbee's blog or book. He not only uses this to set the mortise width, but also the position from the edge. Using the rule of thirds (the mortice is one third of the width of the style) he first makes a mark from the edge to about one third of the style, then sets a second mark which marks the width of the mortise. That's all the precision he needs presumably, and it seems to have been a technique from the 17th century. But I also seem to remember a simple mortise gauge with a fixed distance from the edge and two fixed pins.

I don't think many 17th century workers had a mortise gauge that had an adjustable pin (could be used with different width chisels). If a 17th century guy was taking measurements from a chisel imprint, I think it likely he was using a common marking gauge and setting it from each side of the imprint.

Here is Roubo's mortaise gauge. I think the engraver did not realize it should be 4 different widths.
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Here is a fellow mortising. Note the mallet which is very different from the so-called "traditional joiner's mallet" of today. 18th century mallets had heavy heads and short handles. Roubo lists 3X4or5X7 for the head and 8 inches for the handle. This gives a very different swinging motion which I think is easier on the arm.
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