Peter posits:

> All this talk of splitting handles or snapping handles during
> levering prompts me to offer some sage advice.
> <Sage advice snipped>

As an addition to Peter's excellent description of mortise-chopping
technique, the instructions that come with the Ray Iles pigstickers
say to use a chisel 1/16" smaller than the mortise to be cut.  After
chopping to depth and clearing the chips, trim the mostise to the
layout lines using regular bench chisel.

I haven't tried this yet, but it makes good sense to me.  The result
should make the mortise size more accurate and the walls more uniform.
The latter should be a plus wrt glue bonding.

Can anyone report the results of using this approach?  Anyone have an
opinion (he asks, knowing full well that there's little chance of that
on this list)?

Chuck Myers, in seasonable Western PA

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