Endgrain mortise with router plane?

[Aaron Liebling]

I've got to cut a bunch of endgrain mortises for bed hardware (https://www.rockler.com/heavy-duty-wrought-steel-bed-rail-fasteners-4-pack-select-size). I did the first one with just a chisel and it was fine, but slow going. Would a router plane work better for this?

[Aaron Rosenthal]

I love using hand tools, but I think the objective is to get the job done!
Not knowing what you have in the arsenal, it's a little hard to give advice. MY (emphases on my) preference would be a 1) Hollow Chisel Mortiser, or, make a jig & use a power router if you have one, or, even a series of carefully cut Forsner bit holes to depth, then chisel work.
Personally, a hand router plane would be WAY too much work for me.

[Aaron Liebling]

I thought that might be the case. It's a pain working on the ends of the long sides...can't fit them on the drill press. A jig for the hand held router is probably the best answer

[Warren Mickley]

This is not hard with a chisel and mallet. The mortise is fairly long and quite shallow so you have clearance to come in from both ends. This done with the bevel riding the work. A flat bevel is best; a "secondary bevel" makes it clumsy.

[Aaron Liebling]

Yes, it's fine enough with the chisel. I've already done half of them. Just always looking for a better way!

[Don Coffman]

I have the same task at hand, just not at the top of the list currently. Anyway, Woodsmith rag, covered this in the past I made the jig for the handheld router just haven't completed the task. I will send you an excerpt under a pm.

[Prashun Patel]

A router plane wouldn’t make it faster. It would help get a flat bottom.

A decent mortise chisel is what I would use. If you practice your technique, it can go faster than you think.

Beware that the chisel blows can cause splitting in end grain so auxiliary clamps might be in order.

[Tyler Bancroft]

I don't think you'll find anything faster than a sharp chisel if you're making one bed. If you were making 100 beds and wanted knockdown hardware, you could rig up a router jig, but it'd be easier just to switch to bed bolts.

[Rafael Herrera]

These fasteners need only a 1/8" deep mortise, any bench chisel should be able to handle that job; score the outline and chop. I don't think a mortise chisel would be advantageous in this case, you're more likely to go too deep. Have you considered a hand router to get the bottom flat and to depth?

[Curt Harms]

I thought that might be the case. It's a pain working on the ends of the long sides...can't fit them on the drill press. A jig for the hand held router is probably the best answer

Being primarily a Normite, a jig would get my vote. Something like a mortise cleanout bit something like this.

https://www.mlcswoodworking.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/smarthtml/pages/bt_dado.html?zoom_highlight=mortis+Clean-Out

Clean up the corners with a chisel. The downside to a router is having to make a jig which will take longer than cutting the mortises.