Krenov Wall Hanging Cabinet - Mortises by Hand - there is hope for me yet Part 4 of 6

 In a recent project, I needed to make a small door frame.  In the past, I have used a mortise machine to cut the mortises based on a bad experience I had a few years about cutting mortises by hand.  Now, I will admit that the machine does an excellent job of cutting a mortise.  If I had a lot of mortises to do I would probably use the machine.  However, I felt as if I was using the machine right now as a crutch for my inability to cut them by hand.  This bothered me.

So, on this upcoming project, I needed to do mortise and tenons and I decided I would do the mortises by hand.  I've always done the tenons by hand (found that very easy).  For this, I did two things:

1. Used a proper mortise chisel.  I could have gotten by without BUT it was a way to entice myself to do it by hand.  Much in the same way I have enticed my 10 year old to do certain things by promising ice cream afterwards.  In this case, the chisel would last much longer.  

2. Paul Sellers has an offset jig (first photo above) he has created so that you can register the mortise chisel and make it easier to align it.  I made a quarter inch offset for this project and I have found that a quarter inch offset if likely my most frequently used offset for mortises so I knew this would be handy.

I took my time making the mortises.  I tried with and without the jig.  In all cases, the mortises came out nice and tenons I followed up and cut fit well.  For the tenons, the helpful trick I learned by Paul Sellers (my primary instructor and I like to give credit to where I learned things), I cut the tenons fat and the use the hand router plane to get them thinned to the appropriate width so that they are self supporting.  I was quite pleased with myself.  In future projects, I will continue to cut mortises by hand.  It's not as difficult as I remember it being.  Amazing how one bad memory can make us reluctant to continue to do something.  Can't help but wonder what else in life I am avoiding because of a bad first experience.

Next week I will discuss the "panel" I use inside the frame.  What Krenov did on this cabinet for it was what really attracted me to it.