Bill wrote:


I bought a set of Irwin Marples (Blue Chip/Bevel edged) chisels a while
back. Supposedly, they can be used with mallet as well as by hand.

Assume I wish to do M & T joinery in soft wood.

I just noticed some Norex "mortising chisels" on sale (5 for $45) and
was curious whether they would offer me something more that I need, or
whether they would be redundant for my current purposes.

Thank you for your thoughts.

Bill

As a couple of others have said, you CAN cut the mortises with the
Marples, and if you expect to do that only very infrequently, then go
for it. However, the mortise chisel is designed specifically for --
guess what? And it will do a much better job.

One of its advantages is stoutness, which some have mentioned --
prying out waste with a 1/4" mortise chisel is a lot different from
prying it out with a 1/4" general purpose bench chisel.

I think the biggest advantage to a mortise chisel is its profile,
which practically forces you to cut a rectangular mortise once started
correctly. (You can't see it in the pictures, but these have a tiny
amount of taper, which reduces jamming.) So I'd say go for the LV deal
(but then again, you are not using my credit card).
--
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