How to Chisel a Mortise

Video Transcript

"I'm Robert Markey. I've been doing woodworking for many years. And we're going to talk about how to chisel a mortise. Before you can chisel your mortise, you want to drill it. And you're going to usually do it in the drill press just so the holes are right nice straight down to the proper depth, using the stop. You need to get the right size chisel, which should be just a little bit smaller than the width of your mortise. I'm going to go down the sides. And the trickiest is the corners. You want to put the chisel a little bit to the inside of the line so when it forces it back, it's not going to go over the line. When you get most of that chiseled, stuff comes out. And you do it by hand to make the sides smooth, right to your line. And then you can go right down that end. You see our nice square corners. Square the sides. And there you have it. I'm Robert Markey. And we've just chiseled a mortise."