Posted by
Easy WoodCraft on
Mar 22, 2017
A common paring task for a chisel is trimming or cleaning tenons for a mortise-andtenon, a slip joint, or a stub-tenon-and-groove joint. There are a couple of critical areas of the tenon that usually need attention: the cheeks and the shoulders.
Cheeks
The first thing I do when fitting a mortiseand-tenon joint is to check the fit of the tenon in the mortise. Since it's always better to have a tenon that's too big (if it's too small, you'll need to recut it), the tenon will often require a little paring to fit snugly. I use a wide chisel for this and an underhand grip to lightly pare away the excess (
right photo). Start at one end and use the lip created by the chisel to reference the n
Shoulder
Once the tenon fits into the mortise, all that's left is to make sure the joint fits snugly together with no gaps. Even when you're careful cutting a tenon, it's easy to end up with a "stepped" shoulder. To clean up the shoulders, start by taking light, horizontal paring strokes to clean out the intersection of the cheek and shoulder (
left photo). A long time ago I learned the value of "undercutting" the shoulders. That is, instead of making a 90-degree cut, I just start inside the shoulder (around 1/16") and tilt the chisel up slightly (
bottom drawing). This undercuts the shoulder and virtually eliminates any fitting problems.
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