Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

On Feb 1, 3:26*pm, Puckdropper puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes?

Don't think so except for very long slot mortises. They do make
"Mortise Chisels" especially for working inside holes. They don't have
ramped edges, just sort of a square shaft.
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/n...el-setof3.aspx

Also, Lee Valley is making a specialized square chisel taking the
square chisel from a mortiser and adding steel to allow you to hammer
with it. It was sort of invented or at least championed by Derrel
Peart and now they make them. http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/pag...cat=51&p=65380.

You can use a router to make a slot mortise then square out the corner
with these. I suggested they have a spring loaded guide that hangs out
the bottom to help you line it up but they didn't implement my idea ;-(

A skew chisel, carving skew chisel or a paring chisel should work just
fine. Sharpen to use by hand, not with a mallet. A bent narrow
carving chisel (gouge or scoop) will cut laterally, too.

Sonny

On 01 Feb 2012 23:26:45 GMT, Puckdropper
puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:

Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

Yes, but straight chisels are most often used, if you don't use a
square mortising chisel or a corner chisel.

http://tinyurl.com/4veewzr straight bevel-edge chisels

http://tinyurl.com/86o8v3s mortising chisel

http://tinyurl.com/kkjf27 $15 corner chisel


The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

I usually use a 1/4" Marples with a urethane mallet on the ends, a 3/4
or 1" chisel on the sides of the mortise. The 1/4" should work on your
square holes, depending on size.

--
Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.
-- Thomas Jefferson

On 2/1/2012 5:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper

As others have mentioned, there are probably better tools to help with your
particular problem, but nonetheless I find skew chisels to be some of the most
useful tools in my arsenal, sometimes for the most non-obvious reasons. I have
a set of right and left (you want both) 3/4" Crowns, which are just wonderful.
However, and I found this to be true for most all brands, they came with a
30-degree skew (I think) and for the very first job for which I bought them I
quickly found that I needed a 45-degree skew instead, so I reground them. I'm
not sure why the use such a shallow skew, but I've never found a need for it
and I've never regretted changing the angle of the skew.

--
Free bad advice available here.
To reply, eat the taco.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/

Steve Turner wrote:
On 2/1/2012 5:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper

As others have mentioned, there are probably better tools to help with
your particular problem, but nonetheless I find skew chisels to be some
of the most useful tools in my arsenal, sometimes for the most
non-obvious reasons. I have a set of right and left (you want both) 3/4"
Crowns, which are just wonderful. However, and I found this to be true
for most all brands, they came with a 30-degree skew (I think) and for
the very first job for which I bought them I quickly found that I needed
a 45-degree skew instead, so I reground them. I'm not sure why the use
such a shallow skew, but I've never found a need for it and I've never
regretted changing the angle of the skew.


30-degrees would probably be more handy than 45 in general woodcarving.
I think the main purpose of the tool is, in that context, to get into
hard to reach places.

"Puckdropper" puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote in message
b.com...
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

Puckdropper,
Here's a corner chisel:
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/c...nerchisel.aspx
Kerry

On Feb 1, 10:41*pm, Bill wrote:
Steve Turner wrote:
On 2/1/2012 5:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper

As others have mentioned, there are probably better tools to help with
your particular problem, but nonetheless I find skew chisels to be some
of the most useful tools in my arsenal, sometimes for the most
non-obvious reasons. I have a set of right and left (you want both) 3/4"
Crowns, which are just wonderful. However, and I found this to be true
for most all brands, they came with a 30-degree skew (I think) and for
the very first job for which I bought them I quickly found that I needed
a 45-degree skew instead, so I reground them. I'm not sure why the use
such a shallow skew, but I've never found a need for it and I've never
regretted changing the angle of the skew.

30-degrees would probably be more handy than 45 in general woodcarving.
I think the main purpose of the tool is, in that context, to get into
hard to reach places.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I recently learned, for turning wood, skews are 30° rather than and is
better than 45°, because a 45° is more apt to catch the turning wood.
Don't know if this turning skew angle has anything to do with other
chisel's skew angle. My carving skews are about 30°.

Sonny

On 2/1/2012 10:41 PM, Bill wrote:
Steve Turner wrote:
On 2/1/2012 5:26 PM, Puckdropper wrote:
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper

As others have mentioned, there are probably better tools to help with
your particular problem, but nonetheless I find skew chisels to be some
of the most useful tools in my arsenal, sometimes for the most
non-obvious reasons. I have a set of right and left (you want both) 3/4"
Crowns, which are just wonderful. However, and I found this to be true
for most all brands, they came with a 30-degree skew (I think) and for
the very first job for which I bought them I quickly found that I needed
a 45-degree skew instead, so I reground them. I'm not sure why the use
such a shallow skew, but I've never found a need for it and I've never
regretted changing the angle of the skew.


30-degrees would probably be more handy than 45 in general woodcarving.
I think the main purpose of the tool is, in that context, to get into hard to
reach places.

My reason for needing/wanting 45-degrees instead of 30 (or 60, depending on how
you look at it) was to remove the waste left by the router bit when cutting the
arch of a tombstone raised panel door, as illustrated he

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboye...7603972580761/

On the chamfered surface of the panel where the arch curves down and meets the
short horizontal section, the angle formed at that intersection is much more
acute than 60 degrees, so the default skew of the chisel was not of much use here.

Another place where I've found skew chisels to be incredibly useful is in
trimming the various inner curved surfaces of my rocking chairs:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboye...7603969234306/

If you follow the top-right surface of the seat back to where it meets with the
back leg, that curved surface in the back leg joint that turns upwards (and all
the other curves similar to it) are perfect candidates for using a skew chisel.
You can efficiently cut very graceful curves by holding the chisel bevel-down
in one hand and levering it upwards with a twisting action, usually aided by
pushing the blade with the thumb on the other hand.

--
Free bad advice available here.
To reply, eat the taco.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/

"Steve Turner" wrote in message ...

I have
a set of right and left (you want both) 3/4" Crowns, which are just
wonderful.
================================================== =============
I've never had a Crown anything that was anything more than garbage. Maybe
you got an exception. Maybe they have gotten better but, due to past
experience, I would pay no more than a nickel for any Crown "tool".

On 02/02/2012 05:54 PM, CW wrote:


"Steve Turner" wrote in message ...

I have
a set of right and left (you want both) 3/4" Crowns, which are just wonderful.
================================================== =============
I've never had a Crown anything that was anything more than garbage. Maybe you got an
exception. Maybe they have gotten better but, due to past experience, I would pay no more
than a nickel for any Crown "tool".

I don't know what Crown tools you're buying but that's not been my experience, at least not
with their chisels. My skew chisels take and hold an edge beautifully, and are very well
made, with nice rosewood handles and brass ferrules. I also have their sliding bevel and
mortise marking gauge which I'm less enamored of, but I wouldn't call either of them
"garbage". They may not be the best available, but they certainly get the job done.

--
Free bad advice available here.
To reply, eat the taco.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bbqboyee/

On 01 Feb 2012 23:26:45 GMT, Puckdropper
puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:

Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes?

[...snip...]

Well, it obviously won't get to the very bottom of the hole except in
the corner. It seems to me that a skew chisel will have a lower angle
of attack, much like using a plane skewed to the direction of push.
Which should provide some benefit for fine paring, particularly
working the end grain part of the mortise.

The obvious question is are your chisels sharp enough and what is your
bevel angle and all that? Since you are a long time poster here I'd
guess you know all about that stuff.

Here's some Narex skew chisels. I doubt you would find much better
ones or any cheaper but worth having.
http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/n...hisel-set.aspx

Or just buy a couple of bevel edge chisels of the brand you prefer and
grind them to the skew you prefer.

On Feb 1, 6:26*pm, Puckdropper puckdropper(at)yahoo(dot)com wrote:
Would a chisel with a skew across its face be useful for getting into
corners of mortises and other square holes? *Instead of the cutting edge
being 90 degrees to the body, it would be skewed by say 30 degrees.

The problem I'm trying to solve is cutting the corners out of a square
hole. *After the bulk of the material is removed with a drill bit, I then
clean up the edges with the chisel. *The corners often give me trouble, as
they're not quite along the grain and not quite edge grain.

Puckdropper
--
Make it to fit, don't make it fit.

Any sharp chisel will do the trick, regardless of skew angle.
Scribe the outline with a knife and sneak up to it to keep
from crushing the wood on the good side of the line.

If you're trying to fit a shouldered tenon to a blind routed
mortise, it might be easier to rasp the tenon corners to fit
the rounded mortise ends.