We value quality in the tools we sell. Coming soon are Japanese chisels and mortise chisels – forged, laminated and with exceptionally hard edges! They will be in stock during midsummer week.
Chisels are tools for working wood, for example for chopping away waste or carving out a motif. As a guide, the edge is ground to about 25 degrees for medium-hard wood, 30–40 degrees for harder wood and 15–20 degrees for softer wood.
Mortise chisels belong to the same family but are made for chopping deep, narrow holes, such as mortises or a hole for a lock bolt. The edge is on the narrow side of the blade, which lets a mortise chisel withstand much greater levering and striking forces than a chisel of the same width.
Mortise chisels are sharpened in two ways: the English grind, with a bevel on one narrow side, and the German grind, with bevels on both. The edge angle is usually between 25 and 35 degrees.
The Swedish encyclopaedia Nordisk familjebok (the "Owl edition") describes mortising as the joiner's method of chopping mortises, and lists a long series of chisel types: skew chisels, flat chisels, spoon chisels, "dog's foot" chisels, five-sided corner chisels and V-tools with two angled edges. It also describes the mortising machines of the day, including a drill working inside a square, hollow chisel – the same principle as today's hollow-chisel mortisers.
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