mortice axes

[hayton1960]

I see these from time to time for sale.
Have any of you guys used them successfully to chop big mortices? I saw some fearsome looking ones in france (antique ones and new ones in one of their "home depot" type places. They looked like a 4 foot bazzoka with a chisel at either end, but USA ones seem more like a splitting wedge shape. I reckon you still would have to pre drill your mortise position then use it to chop out and clean up? I would be very interested to find out more.
Cheers Jonathan

[Jim_Rogers]

For creating mortises we use boring machines to hog out the bulk of the wood. Then finish with chisels, either straight ones or corner chisels.

Some large chisels are used called "Slicks".

If you go to my photo gallery you can see these tools, in the tools for sale section.

We sell these tools and have shipped them to UK before.
If you like to get larger photos, email me directly and I can email them back to you.

Jim Rogers

[hayton1960]

Jim, those slicks look fantastic. You surely must have got a bumper sticker that says "slick magnet"?? ;D

So is the regular drilled and chiseled mortise the most commonly used way then? I'll take further explorations into the archives. Its just that I was curious as to wether the mortise axe was still used sucessfully. I've never had a problem with brace and bit and chisel to do mortises, in fact I prefer that method on small hand mortises rather than a mortice chisel!
Cheers, Jonathan ;)