Bench Leg, Mortise Chisel question

[John Dykes]

I'm working on my version of the Holtzapffel in Ash. I'm only in the lumber prep stage - and going slowly. Thinking ahead about the leg mortises that Chris Schwartz has at 5/8". I have a Ray Isles 1/4 and 3/16 combo of pigstickers. I'd like to use handtools as much as possible in the spirit of tradition and learning....

My thoughts are to buy an old brace and some bits and dig out the rest via my bench chisels, or find a 5/8 pigsticker...

Thoughts, corrections, and criticisms welcome.

-jbd in Denver

[Don C Peterson]

Whenever a mortise is more than about 1/2" I start to look at the drill and pare method. I've found that tryin to hog out a mortise much larger than that with just a chisel is a lot of work.

[Bob Easton]

Drlill and pare.

I just did 12 5/8" mortises for a six legged version of Schwarz's English bench. Each leg has one 6 inch long through mortise and one 3 and 1/2 inch long stopped mortise. I drilled them with a Forstner bit and a hand brace. Not using a drill press, I found it helpful to cut a center line about 1/16" deep with a chisel to use as a starting point for the Forstner bit's tip. Careful drilling kept the holes within bounds. When paring out the waste, I used a block clamped along the edge line as a backstop that keeps the chisel vertical.

As an aside, 5 holes for each stopped mortise and 9 for each through mortise used enough calories to work off a Snickers bar. :)