Hollow Mortise Chisels?

[Garth Keel]

I just got a Powermatic Bench Top Mortiser. What brand and size chisels are best? It did not come with any.

[Casey Gooding]

A while back, Woodworking Magazine did a review of Hollow mortise chisels. I think they rated Woodcrafts cheap set the best. Basically, they said they are all about the same. Pricier does not necessarily equal better.
They did say the most important thing to do was polish the machine marks off the outside and inside with a cone sharpener.

[John Grogan]

I just got the Jet JFM-5 and pick up my chisels at Holbren. ANd yes the cone sharpener is critical

[Garth Keel]

Thanks for the help! :)

[Jack Bazemore]

I just got the Jet JFM-5 and pick up my chisels at Holbren. ANd yes the cone sharpener is critical

John, where can you find a cone sharpener?

Thanks, Jack

[Michael Faurot]

John, where can you find a cone sharpener?


Lee Valley has the cone sharpener (http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=53252&cat=1,180,42240,53317) and chisels.

[Rob Grubbs]

John, where can you find a cone sharpener?

Thanks, Jack
See the bottom of this Lee Valley page. Free shipping through tomorrow.
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.aspx?c=2&p=41702&cat=1,180,42334
edit: oops, Michael beat me to it.

[Dewey Torres]

Here is another cone set. I have this one and it works great. None the these HM chisels are worth a crud until they are sharpened and you reduce the radius of the cutter on a grinder:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=11153&filter=sharpening

[Ron Jones near Indy]

Dewey beat me to it. I was going to say that Rockler has the cone sharpener. Seems to do the job.

[Paul Ryan]

None the these HM chisels are worth a crud until they are sharpened and you reduce the radius of the cutter on a grinder:


Dewey

Can you elaborate on what you mean by reducing the radius fo the cutter on a grinder. I got in on the Jet floor mortiser when it was cheap and am still looking at chisels. I have been leaning toward the lower priced Lee Valley set. I was also planning on buying the cones from there, but are you saying I will have to do something else to make the chisels decent?

[Lee Schierer]

I have a cheap set of chisels for my drill press mortiser. When I first used them I had to use considerable force to get the bit into the wood and again to get it back out. The bits seemed fairly sharp but were still hard to use. I noticed that the grind marks on the outside surfaces were fairly rough and running perpendicular to the direction of boring. I sat down with my scary sharp glass plate and hone the outside until I got a much smoother surface. What a difference it made in the east of boring holes. I also noted that I needed to run my drill press at about 2330 rpm to get the best cutting action.

Take a close look at your chisels and see if the horizontal scratches are rough enough to hang up in the wood. If they are then hone them down and you will see a marked improvement in ease of cutting.