Pam Niedermayer - Austin, TX
>First you chop part of the mouth from the sole, then start coming at the mouth from two directions from the top. You must be careful to accommodate the ura with some bed shaping. It's very simple. At the very beginning I layout the lines.

Tools? Ruler, straight edge and winding sticks, heavy duty mortising or atsu nomi chisel at a width to suit, small saw for cutting the abutments, 1/16 or 1/8 chisel (you could use a float) for tuning the abutments, a pencil for graphite at the tight spots, scraper plane for tuning the sole, and maybe a paring chisel for this and that. If you'll have a subblade, you'll need a drill or brace and a jig to guarantee drilling straight for the brass tube mounting. I think that's all.

I think western woodies are even easier because you don't have the ura to worry about. Also, check out Herrli's video. Although he doesn't chop his mortises it's easy to see how you'd do that.

Pam