Chisels

[Larry Blanchard]

Yes they do. And they look just as good as my Sorbys. But they're not pigstickers.

[whit3rd]

I've dovetailed plywood and soft cedar... and it's VERY challenging. Oak, on the other hand, with a sharp chisel, is easy. Do your chisel work in hard wood first, you might graduate to the soft stuff eventually.

[Bill]

The projects I have in mind use SYP. That's a hard enough soft wood to work okay, no?

Bill

[alexy]

NO! NO! NO!

SYP is the worst of both worlds, IMHO. The winter wood is very hard, while the summer wood is relatively soft. When you are cutting through oak or maple, the wood is hard, AND very solid, so the fibers you are cutting have a good backing. With SYP, when you are cutting fibers in the winter wood part of a ring, you are cutting very hard wood, with a soft layer behind it.

Analogy: Paring oak is like slicing a carrot on a solid cutting board on a counter top. Paring SYP is like slicing a carrot that is resting on a sofa cushion.

[Bill]

Point taken. How about the stuff typical 4by4s are made of (fir?)?

Bill

[Lew Hodgett]

Forget the garbage.

Break down and buy some hardwood "Shorts" from the "Drop off" bin and enjoy practicing.

It won't break the bank.

Lew.

[Bill]

I'm looking forward to practicing. I ordered a DP a few days ago. Still need to gegting fluorescent lights up. The snow flurries started just a few days ago and the temps are commensurate.

What do you think we should do for the rest of the materials with "our" SYP-topped bench?

I happen to own a "rubber mallet". Is that appropriate for pushing a chisel, or would one of the other contrivances I've seen be worthwhile? The contrivance I was thinking of looked like a possibly rubber-coated cylindrical mass of wood.

Bill

[Lew Hodgett]

-------------------------------- What's wrong with more SYP?

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I like a raw hide mallet.

Lew

[Larry Jaques]

The sole good use of polyurethane is to make a damn nice mallet. I have an 18oz Shop Fox urethane mallet and it works better than wood, plastic, or (cringe) steel. I fell in love with it on the second stroke. Rawhide may have a similar resilience to it. I'll have to check that out.

-- Happiness is not a station you arrive at, but a manner of traveling. -- Margaret Lee Runbeck

[RP]

Ahh shoot Bill, whittle mortices in whatever you want to. From pineywood to purpleheart and get used to the feel of it. Fir 4X's will mortise nicely, Don't sweat the little sh@t, and get on with it. Experience will come and you will be fine.

RP