Manual of Purpose-Made Woodworking Joinery

32 Joinery joints

(h) Now turn the work over and repeat the pro-
cedure again. But this time, let the chisel go partly
through to the cleared area below to promote align-
ment.
(i)(j) Finally, with the back edge of the work upper-
most, place the chisel on the wedge marks and chop
the slopes so that they break into the mortises at a
half to two- thirds of the overall depth. Once you have
gained experience and confidence, try to achieve this
with one mallet blow per wedge slope.

Holding the work whilst mortising

When mortising, the work should be resting on a
solid surface and be held upright. It can be cramped to

the top edge of a bench in various ways. For example,

a short offcut of timber can be fixed upright in a vice,

with the adjacent work G- cramped to it on the edge

of the bench – or the work can be held on the edge

of the bench by means of a sash cramp fixed verti-

cally to the underside edge of the bench’s side- rail. If

large enough (such as a doorway door- stile), the work

can also rest on one or two purpose- built wooden

stools. This enables the craftsperson to sit on the work

and adopt one of the best hand- mortising positions

possible.

Purpose- built mortising stool(s)

Figure 3.22: Mortising stools, like traditional saw

stools, were made by the craftsperson themselves and

therefore varied in design – often depending on what

timber was available at the time. For those hand-

techniques’ enthusiasts interested in following and

emulating past master- craftsmen’s methods, I have

designed one of these stools, illustrated in Figure 3.22,

which has the advantage of being able to hold lighter

work as well, via a G- cramp (or cramps) being fixed to

the underside of the stool’s relatively thin top.

The stool’s specification

My design uses 50 × 100mm prepared softwood for

the top, the legs and the T- shaped feet. However, tra-

ditionally, the top was made more solid by using 75 ×

100mm or 100 × 100mm prepared. The tread boards,

Figure 3.21 (e) Breaking through; (f) Chopping to the 
left.

(e) (f)

Figure 3.21 (g) Chopping to the right; (h) Work turned
over.

(g) (h)

Figure 3.21 (i) Creating wedge- slopes; (j) Completed
mortise.

(i) (j)

750 mm

450 mm

Figure 3.22 Traditional- type mortising stool.