I've been working on a project that calls for 1" wide mortises. I don't own a lot of tools, and I'm pretty new to woodworking so the intuitive thing to do is go out and look for a 1" wide mortise chisel. However, I cant seem to find any that are made that wide. The only reason I can come up with is that pounding a 1"+ wide chisel through hardwood may take a lot of force? After searching the web and finding a couple of different approaches, I thought I'd ask here. What would be the preferred way to chop 1" wide mortises? I do see that you can purchase framing chisels that wide and of course bench chisels but wasn't sure if either of these were the best option.
One method I've seen online was to drill out most of the waist using a drill press then pair along the mortise walls using a bench chisel to square it up. Is that an acceptable method or does that open the door to accidentally widening the mortises by pairing along the walls?
Please help a newbie out.