Very new, very old mortising chisels
Christopher Schwarz
>There has been a bit of chatter lately about mortising chisels, and if you're thinking about buying some for your work, you might want to hold off for a few months (if you can) because soon you'll have an additional tool to consider.
Ray Iles is jigging up now to produce traditional early-19th century mortise chisels, what some people call the pigstickers. Joel at Tools for Working Wood will be selling them, and he let me work with the prototype for a couple weeks, and I was quite impressed.
I've always used sash mortising chisels (Sorbys and Marples for the most part, and I have one Japanese mortiser). I've never had any particular complaints about these tools, but they weren't my favorite things to use.
The Ray Iles was like a revelation. The handle (beech) is double tapered, which gives your body the feedback it needs to hold the tool straight on and square in the cut. The blade itself is a massive thing. The prototype I used was A2, though I'm told that the production models will be D2. Like a traditional mortiser, the Ray Iles tool tapers on its side � that is, the backside is a shade wider than the front side. These tapered flanks make the chisel easier to remove from the cut after hitting them with the mallet. It really does help.
The tool's mass and ergonomics make hand mortising much easier than I've ever experienced. Joel and Ray Iles are still working out some of the details, such as whether or not the cannel of the tool will be rounded like some historical examples show and they are tweaking the handle. The tool initially will be available in 3/16", 1/4" 5/16", 3/8" 7/16" and 1/2". They'll be expensive, I'm sure, but worth it.
Joel tells me he's taking pre-production orders. You'll have to get in line behind me, however. I ordered my set this morning.
Chris
