Reading the post from Ron with his mortise and tenon joints got me to wondering.  How many of us use a hollow chisel mortise versus hand chopping the joint the traditional way?  I bought the Delta mortiser years ago when I built my workbench, and to the best of my feeble recollection, that is the only time I have used it.  But then, I haven't done many M/T joints, either.  Any thoughts?

Edited December 7, 20178 yr by Ron Dudelston
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there was a time by hand was the only way... as in many... for decades...

now I have a mortiser from Powermatic which replaced my Delta... (way more capacity and nicer to use/set up w/ far more power)..

w/ that, the TS w/ a dado blade for the tenons and a shoulder plane... life is good...

I use mine a lot. Not just for mortise, either-

Could not see a dedicated mortiser since I do not do that many. I  bought the Narex 2 chisel set and love it. Hardly ever do any now but was great for the ones I did do

54 minutes ago, Gerald said:

Could not see a dedicated mortiser since I do not do that many. I  bought the Narex 2 chisel set and love it. Hardly ever do any now but was great for the ones I did do

I don't do enough mortises in flat work to justify a machine either Gerald, and Tom.

 

Lately I am hand cutting mortises, they are exposed mortises, I had a Shop  Fox years ago that I got rid of, but it could not produce clean perfect mortises. (No offense Lew) but if you see Lew's checker board, you can see the little side divets that the mortising chisel made.

 

For what I am doing right now, a mortising machine would not cut it, for two reasons, the exposed mortises have to be near perfect as the back rest slats for my chairs do not have shouldered tenons to hide a machined mortise, the chair mortises are fully exposed. Reason number two, I am working towards a more hand made experience with what I am doing now, in the near future when I sell my chairs at shows and gallery, if a customer ask me how much of the chair I made by hand, eventually as my skills are improved, I want to be able to say, most of it, if not all of it. I am working towards that experience. Plus, I can ask for a bigger price, when it's hand made as much by human power as possible. Buyers in the know appreciate that aspect of woodworking and are willing to pay for it.

 

I am not slamming the machine, it has it's use for sure. But it's just where I am at on a personal level in my own shop.

 

I just don't know if you can get a perfectly clean exposed mortise like these I did on my own chairs by hand. 

 

EDIT: Reading back my own comment here, it sure sounded snooty, that was not my intention, I love my machines just as much as the next guy, I was just making a statement more about what type of work you may be doing, and the limitations of a mortising machine.

 

And, we can't forget about the limitations of a chisel and mallet, time being a major factor among others!

Thanks for putting up with me. 

 

I have a drill press delta attachment mortise machine and it works very well once you align it properly.

I use M & T for most of my furniture and it has not failed me yet but I do always cut shouldered tenons.

If if there is any miss alignment it is hidden by the shoulder.

The tiny cuts you are seeing is normally a misalignment or improper sharpening of the square cutter.

I have had cut them (test pieces only) and like the machined ones better.

If I were building chairs with thru tenons it would still look great.

 

 

Seems like all I have ever used was a mallet and a chisel......and...IF you get the correct chisel, they aren't all that slow to do. 

I've never owned a bench mortiser, though I do have a set of chisels for one. I use them to square things up when I rout them, and i did get a few mortising chisels to do some by hand.

17 minutes ago, steven newman said:

Seems like all I have ever used was a mallet and a chisel......and...IF you get the correct chisel, they aren't all that slow to do. 

I think I finally found the correct chisel for me Steve. I purchased the Narex 3 piece set awhile back, and while they seemed alright, I just wasn't getting the solid registration that I expected from great chisels. I bit the bullet and purchased this 1/4" English (Pig Sticker) chisel made by Ray Iles. My gosh what a difference! It's hard to explain, but my what a difference.

Source:https://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/dept/TBMC/item/MS-MORT.XX

 

I will purchase the rest of the chisel set as funds become available.