15 - Sliding Table, страница 25

TECHNIQUE

Mortise

One common way to make a mortise is to drill a series of overlapping holes, then remove the rest of the waste with a chisel.

To produce a tight fit, the important thing is to end up with sides and ends that are vertical. The solution is to use an overhand grip and pare straight down.

sides. I start with the sides. In addition to the grip, the width of chisel you use can help produce a straight, vertical cut, see Step 1.

ends. A similar approach works well on the ends. But this time, select a chisel that matches the width of the mortise, see Step 2. cleanup. To clean up any re

maining material, I've found that pivoting the blade across the side of the mortise creates a crisp, clean cut, see Step 3.

Using an overhand grip allows you to pare straight down when cleaning out a mortise.

ITo support the blade, use a chisel that's wide enough to span across two of the ridges and pare straight down.

2 Next, with a chisel that's the same width as the mortise, pare straight down on the ends using an overhand grip.

3 As a final cleanup, press the flat part of the blade against the side of the mortise and pivot the handle to slice off a thin shaving.

Tenon

It doesn't take much of a "step" on the shoulder of a tenon to keep two pieces from fitting tightly together. Even though there's not much material to remove, paring off this "step" can be a challenge.

width of blade. To avoid damaging the adjacent shoulder, I use a chisel that's narrower than

the the thickness of the work-piece, but •wider than the thickness of the tenon, see Step 1.

two grips. What gives me the best control here is to use a combination of grips. An underhand grip as you pare toward the base of the tenon. And an overhand grip to remove the shavings.

To keep from cutting too deep into the stepped shoulder, I slice the remaining waste off with a shearing cut, see Step 2.

An underhand grip helps control the cut when paring the "step" off a tenon.

ITo pare the step off a tenon, start with an underhand grip and lead the cutting edge into the step at a high point on the shoul

der. After making several paring cuts down toward the base of the tenon, trim off the shavings by cutting straight down.

2 With the flat part of the blade held firmly on the "good" shoulder, pivot the handle to make a shearing cut across the shoulder.

BLADE IS WIDER THAN THICKNESS OF TENON, BUT NARROWER THAN \ THICKNESS OF \ WORKPIECE

FIRST:

PARE OFF STEP WITH LIGHT ANGLED CUTS

STEP

SECOND:

TRIM OFF SHAVINGS

No. 15

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