• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

Using Chisels The mastery is all in the basics. By Paul Anthony and Geoff Noden A chisel is a simply remarkable tool. Basically just a piece of steel with one sharpened end and a handle, it can perform the coarsest work to the most refined. You can use it to rough out shaped parts, fine-tune joints, pare plugs, and chop out mortises, among myriad other things. It’s all in how you wield the tool. Mastering the chisel is all about learning a handful of basic maneuvers, but learning them well. Here, we’ll show you how to grip, power, and guide this invaluable tool to ensure the kind of clean, accurate paring and chopping that leads to tight joinery and precise detailing. To wrap things up, we’ll show how these totechniques encounter can in beyour best own employed, workshop. using as examplesNote: For typical the sake operations of brevity you’re and clarity, likely throughout this article we’ll regard the right hand as the dominant hand. Apologies to our lefty friends, who will have to reverse the instructions. About Our Authors Senior editor Paul Anthony and furnituremaker Geoff Noden drew on their combined 72 years of woodworking experience to produce this article. Surprisingly, they had very few arguments about proper technique–a good thing, considering they were both armed with keenly honed weapons. Contact Paul at [email protected]. Paul Anthony Geoff Noden For more on Geoff, visit geoffreynoden.com. 42 woodcraftmagazine.com April/May 2012 Basic maneuvers A B C Press the chisel face fl at against Back up while maintaining Apply pressure against the the surface to be trimmed. the angle of the blade. blade and pare forward. Powering and guiding adjacent workbench surface. a handsaw properly oriented just as you practice keeping When maneuvering a chisel, It also provides a fulcrum for attention to the nuance of a use your right hand to power fine directional control and during sawing. And pay mallet.it, either Use by yourgrasping left hand the tool to braking at the business end of the wood starts to tear, or the handle or by tapping it with a theWhen chisel possible, while your establish right hand the particular cut. For instance, if provides general steering. surface, you may need to try register the blade against the surface to be cut as a reference, tip of the chisel digs into the thework dance. and to That provide is, you fine use control. it to asdirection shown ofin travelPhotos by A using the The left hand generally leads C a different angle of attack. through Tip Alert locate the chisel tip on target . Learn to guide a chisel as Although it may seem before driving the blade into the toolmuch vertically by feel as (or by horizontally), sight. For counterintuiti ve, the back of the anchor,work using as it your contacts right both hand. example, practice orienting the chisel is actually called the face. theYour chisel left and hand the serves work oras an Establishing cut directi on your left hand on the workpiece When chopping with a mallet, rest Photo D). while pinching the blade between your fingers ( A short chisel works best for this, as a longer tool tends to needssway due to beto itsabsolutely top-heaviness. precise, When your angle of attack there’s no shame in using a D E shownguide block. in Photo This E is. To particularly clean up Pinching the blade as shown aff ords A mitered guide block for the chisel helpful when paring miters, as much bett er chopping control than ensures precise paring on the ends block with a squared end. holding the chisel by its handle. of mitered moldings or other parts. squared notches, use a guide Photos: Paul Anthony April/May 2012 woodcraftmagazine.com 43 Bevel Up Or Bevel Down? A chisel can be used bevel up or bevel down. It’s usually best to work with the bevel up because the back, or face, is self-referencing. That is, when the face is contacting the work, it helps guide the blade parallel to the work surface, somewhat like the sole of a Scribe line plane. Conversely, when the bevel is oriented downward, it has minimal contact with Scribe line the surface, requiring a steady guiding hand to hold the F G tool at a consistent cutting After hogging out the waste, insert For a shoulder cut, align a chisel angle while preventing the the chisel tip in the scribe line with the scribe line at the base of tip from digging in too far. and make the final paring cut. the tails (here) or tenon shoulder. Working to scribed lines that, pare back to the scribe serve as a brake to keep the afterward. If there’s more than against the workpiece to A neatly scribed line–whether made with a knife or marking once,line taking or the a chisel series bevel of slices. will chisel from lurching forward. gauge–creates one of the best (Avoid taking too big a bite at tipAgain, in the when scribed making line. the guides for a chisel. The scribed tool backwards and possibly final slice, locate the chisel line severs the wood fibers pastact like the a scribed wedge, line.)forcing the at the surface, eliminating When hand-paring to a scribe tear-out at the joint edge line, don’t just push the chisel while creating a tiny trough scribedTo make line the (Photo final Fcut,), place straight forward. Instead, for registering the chisel tip. andthe edgethen ofdrive the itchisel with in a the wiggle the tool side to side In a sense, this is the first as you apply pressure. At thecut innext making step isthe to joint. chop or saw first, wiggle it only slightly to awayAfter the scribing bulk of thethe jointwaste. layout, pareseries by of hand, light malletas shown taps. in the prevent pulling it out of the Instead of tapping, you can scribe line. As the depth of cut forwardincreases, pressure, apply more the side-to-whole Ideally, you want to leave just photo on page 42. Keep the side motion while increasing enough waste so that it can blade firmly pinched in your with your left hand pressed be pared away in a single slice left hand, pressing the hand time pinching the blade firmly Safety Tips • To prevent slicing the hand that grasps the blade, against the work to prevent the ease the sides of a chisel with 400-grit sandpaper, chisel tip,from scribe lurching lines forward. can also beginning about an inch from the cutting edge. In addition to locating the • Always secure work in a bench vise or with clamps to prevent it from slipping during cutting. provide a visual bead for aiming • Don’t work with a dull chisel, which requires your chisel. For example, when more force and tends to slip in use. paring the shoulder on the • Never place your hand or other body part in the edge of a tailboard, mount the path of a chisel, in case it lurches forward. withwork thein a scribe vise, and line sight made down at the basethe side of the of the tails blade (Photo to align G). it 44 woodcraftmagazine.com April/May 2012 H Because the grain on this tenon cheek rises I toward the shoulder, paring inward from the To cut a clean chamfer, slice outward end of the tenon produces the cleanest cut. toward the end grain surface. Cutti ng cleanly There are times when easiertear-out. insertion For example, in its mortise, when woodAs mentioned, surface. Therescribing are a alsolayout chamfering the end of a tenon for slicing with just the corner aminimizes few other tear-out techniques at the you of the chisel is the way to go. don’t just push the chisel madeFor instance, a hair too you shy, may like need that to straight forward, which will shownremove in a Photoridge caused J by a cut can use to ensure that you’re outwardtend to lift toward the wood the endfibers. of cutting as cleanly as possible. theInstead, tenon slice (Photo forward I). This and . By pushing wheneverFirst of all,possible, when paring,as shown in and dragging one corner of the Photocut with H the slope of the grain chisel tip through the ridge, you inwill the shear direction the fibers of the clean cut. meet less cutting resistance on the opposite. If the grain cheek, rises where in your because they’re supported and tear-out than by simply favor on one tenon cheek, it won’t forcing the entire edge forward. you’ll have to cut across the grain, as shown in Photos A-C. Using a slicing motion can also prevent grain Sharp and Flat Of course it’s important that a chisel be sharp to work properly, and the sharper the bett er. But it’s also crucial that the face is fl at. If it’s rounded over at the cutti ng edge, you’ve lost your reference surface. No matt er how you sharpen your chisels, make sure the cutti ng edge is fi nely honed and that the bevel J meets a fl at face. Slicing with just the corner of the chisel reduces cutti ng resistance while cleanly severing the wood fi bers. April/May 2012 woodcraftmagazine.com 45 Fine-tuning a hand-cut tenon Having sawn proud of your scribed shoulder lines, Hold the chisel blade with your left hand resti ng solidly fi rst pare away the waste on the narrow edge of the on the work.

Load more

  7

Copy Link