Hollow Mortise Chisels

[Jim Kappel]

I'm picking up a new JET JFM-5 Closed Stand Floor Mortiser and need a set of chisels to go with it. Any recommendations? I guess I could probably go with a single chisel rather than a set. It'd save money...

I'm planning to pick up the 3-piece chisel sharpening set from Rockler as well.

[Larry Edgerton]

Fishe or Clico

[Dewey Torres]

I will 2nd your sharpening choice. I have the Rockler set and it is very nice/ easy to use.

[Trace Beard]

I believe popular woodworking did a review of mortising chisels a couple of years ago and the more expensive brands weren't any better than the cheaper ones. The woodcraft brand was one of the highest rated and is fairly inexpensive.

FYI, they (woodcraft) are also a little shorter and so you can get taller stock under the bit.

[Larry Edgerton]

I believe popular woodworking did a review of mortising chisels a couple of years ago and the more expensive brands weren't any better than the cheaper ones. The woodcraft brand was one of the highest rated and is fairly inexpensive.

FYI, they (woodcraft) are also a little shorter and so you can get taller stock under the bit.

I have no idea who makes Woodcrafts, but that test is a load. The Tiawan chisels split in any wood that is hard. You can not finish a project with a Taiwan bit in say, white oak or harder. And changing chisels in the middle of a run is a pain in the butt. I'll pay a few bucks more for a good chisel.

I never trust a test in a magazine that accepts advertising.

I bought a new Vega GT in 72 when it was "Car of the Year". Rags lie.

[Bryan Cowing]

Lee Valley has a good set

[Mike Cutler]

I have no idea who makes Woodcrafts, but that test is a load. The Tiawan chisels split in any wood that is hard. You can not finish a project with a Taiwan bit in say, white oak or harder. And changing chisels in the middle of a run is a pain in the butt. I'll pay a few bucks more for a good chisel.

Larry

I am going to respectfully disagree with your statement as a 100% statistic.
The Chisels that came with my Delta 14-651 were most certainely made in Taiwan or China.
They did require some significant sharpening and honing, and the bits needed more than a little work with some diamond abrasive sticks new out of the box. I spent maybe 15-20 minutes on each chisel/bit set.

I did close to 600, 3/8" mortises for a single project in Brazilian Cherry, which is a much tougher wood than domestic Oak, or Maple. The chisels did require some touch up honing due to the silica in Brazilian Cherry, but the same chisel and bit did them all.
That same chisel/bit set has been used on Wenge, Macassar Ebony, and cocbolo.
The supplied 3/8" chisel has probably done close to 1500 mortises, to varying depths since I've had it, with no sign of fatigue or stress.

I won't say that the chisels that were supplied with my Delta are on par with Clico's. but they do work, and the chisel can be "touched up", mounted in place.

Once again, I am not trying to be contrary, just posting my experience.

[Larry Edgerton]

I guess we will have to disagree. The job I was unable to finish with Taiwan chisels was Jatoba, 5/16" mortises, and I went through three Taiwan chisels before I ordered a Clico. The Jatoba just rolled the points of the chisel out so that they spread into the wood and pulled themselves apart. Tooling is not supposed to bend.

I can not speak for every Tiawan chisel of course, but they are not exactly known for consistancy either. I am glad that you had a good experiance. I did not. I hate lousy tools, and will continue to buy known quality from reputable manufacturers who take pride in their product and pay their employees a living wage, not resellers that have no real idea what they are selling.

[Dewayne Reding]

Lee Valley has a good set

http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=41702&cat=1,180,42334

Are these what you refer to?. They appear correct, but the description sounds like they fit the Delta Drill press adapter, rather than my 14-651 Delta Morticer. My factory chisels lasted a couple seasons in red oak, but they are struggling mightily in jatoba. Think I will get some hones too.

And BTW Larry, perhaps you misunderstood that article back in '72. The Vega was car of the year for GM, not you. Glad I didn't fall for that one. We got us a Ford Pinto instead. :(

[Thomas Pender]

I agree with the post on the quality of the Lee Valley chisels - I use the ones I bought as replacements for the ones that came with my mortiser and they are great - and I am going into white oak for the most part. The shanks are long, so I had to cut off a bit to fit them into my mortiser, but, who cares?

[James Boster]

I have used CMT's and like them. Woodcraft sells them but drop ships from manufacturer so they don't have them in the stores.

[John Thompson]

I have an industrial floor mortise machine that I run CMT and Lee Valley in. Both are excellent with the Lee Valley more expensive. And I am going to join in disagreement on all Taiwanese chisels can't finish a project. I just did 1/4" slats (1/4" hollow mortise chisels are the most fragile regardless of brand) with a Taiwanese chisel on a Mission coffee table. I don't have a 1/4" CMT or Lee Valley. No problems.

I did sharpen the chisel as I do all chisels before using it and took repeated short plunges. My mortiser has done 4" deep through mortises on work-bench legs and can handle those with one continous plunge. But.. with the Taiwanese the short plunges eliminated over-heat in QSWO in this case.

I have looked at the Clicko at around $100 a chisel. Strangely enough I have WW friends in England where it is made that pay around $12 U.S. for the same chisel they say. $100 per rules out Clico for me personally as some of the less expensive do just fine and I use M & T's almost daily in retirement.

Good luck... and if you purchase a Taiwanese also purchase a set of sharpening cones.. don't over-heat them and your luck will improve even more.

Sarge..

[Andrew Nemeth]

I recently picked up the JFM5 and asked a similar question a few weeks back (You might want to do a search on here to see some other opinons). I did a lot of research (including buying and reading the FWW article) online and ended up buying CMT chisels and bits off of amazon. I have a couple of older delta sets as well that I used with a drill press, one of which is actually made by fisch. From the best I can tell it does appear all can hold a good egde but some required a bit more work to get into proper shape than others. The other thing I can say is that heat build up can be a major concern with any bit and chisel if the proper gap is not set between them, there is not efficiant chip ejection, and/or the chisels are not properly tuned. Once you overheat a bit it will dull much quicker as heating metal and cooling it slowly will soften the metal. In general, softer metal will take an edge easier but dull quicker than a harder metal. I wonder if initial overheating may affect some peoples impression of bits. Whatever bits you end up buying make sure you tune them up set the gap properly and are getting good chip ejection before doing a lot of work with it to prevent it from overheating.