THE YOUNG FARMER'S MANUAL. 399 



chisels are seldom kept on hand at hardware stores, get one 

 forged, with the wings at a right angle, which will cost about 

 seventy-five cents. Take it, before it is tempered, to a machine- 

 shop, and have the blade planed true, at a right angle, both on 

 the face and bach Have the edges planed down so that each 

 wing will be about seven-eighths of an inch wide, so that it can 

 be used in making inch mortises. After tempering it, grind it on 

 a stone that runs very true, and whet it like any other chisel. 

 File the basil in the corner to the desired depth with a triangular 

 file. Do not file off the projecting point at the middle of the 

 basil, as that will aid very much in mortising. Planing it and 

 tempering it will cost not over forty cents. 



584. The superiority of such a chisel, when compared with 

 straight chisels, is this ; in heading down a mortise, it makes a 

 clean, true cut in the corner, and a workman can mortise very 

 much faster with it than with another chisel, and a beginner can 

 make a very good mortise with it when he would not have suffi 

 cient skill to make a mortise " half-way decent " with a straight 

 chisel. (See MAKING MORTISES, in next vol.) 



585. Fig. 159 represents a side or edge view of a duck-bill 

 chisel, which is designed for making deep mortises, and is ground 

 about as every kind of chisels should be ground. 



FORMS OF CHISELS, AND GRINDING THEM. 



586. No mechanic can mortise well and easily if his chisels 

 are not of a good shape and well sharpened. In order to have 

 a chisel enter a mortise easily and not stick, so that it is difficult 

 to withdraw it, it must be a trifle wider at the cutting edge than it 

 is at the upper end of the blade. When a chisel is narrower at 

 the cutting edge, like Fig. 163, it will bind so tightly in a mor 

 tise that it will be difficult to withdraw it. If the two side edges 

 are exactly parallel with each other, like the blades of 156 and 

 157, they will stick in mortising but little. In order to have a 

 chisel enter straight inwards, the face should be as straight as 

 shown at Fig. 162, which is an edge view of a framer. Never 

 17* 



