Chuck asks about paring cheek mortises....

Joseph Moxon describes this cheek-paring technique in the Mechanick  
Exercises chapter on joinery. The mortise he is describing being made  
in this manner is enormous -- he's using an 1"-wide mortise chisel.  
But other later authors discussing cabinet work (from Hayward to  
Holtzapffel) favor a chisel that is the same width as the resulting  
mortise.

I recently tried six or seven techniques (including Moxon's) and  
found that the cheek-paring was the most difficult part of the  
mortise. You want a straight cheek, and so paring straight down is  
the goal. That can be tough going.

I use the chisel width that matches the mortise width. But there are  
many ways to do it and do it well.

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Christopher Schwarz
Editor
Popular Woodworking magazine
Woodworking Magazine
4700 E. Galbraith Road
Cincinnati, OH 45236

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