intleting & splintering

[tbailey]

i have a question about building, i am working on john Bivin's pre carved stock. intleting the tang, and lock area and the trigger guard,  the wood has split or splintered were inleted.  what causes this to happen to the wood,  i do bevel the item to be intleted.  it seems to me that when using a chisel and tapping it in on a pencil line the wood will splinter. i do sharpin my tools before intleting. is the maple wood i am using to soft.

[rich pierce]

Is it actually splitting, running a crack?  Does this happen when cutting the inlet or when placing the part in place and tapping it into place?

[Jim Filipski]

One of the main causes I find especially when I'm teaching an apprentice is (even though they have their breech plug beveled properly) that they are whacking the breech of the barrel too hard to leave the inletting marks because they're in a hurry to get it into the wood. The tapered plug acts like a splitting wedge.
Jim

[tbailey]

 Rich this happens when inleting and placing the item in place. i would say that it is a running crack. could the wood be to dry or to soft.

jw. I  use soft blows while tapping the chisel and placing the item in.  I can see your point.   Sometimes when I remove a item a splinter comes off. I use a file to smooth the wood off i still have some wood to splinter around the inlet area.

[P.W.Berkuta]

Sounds to me like the grain direction is your problem . Try not plunging / cutting the inlet too deep at one time. Trace the line with a scalpel or a sharp X-Acto knife first then go to a fine tapered chisel to shave the remainder off.

[keweenaw]

There are a variety of things that could be the cause.  My guess is either you're trying to cut too deep with one pass, you have too steep an angle on your chisels, of they aren't really sharp. (It the chisel won't easily shave the hair from your arm it isn't sharp enough.   A chisel sharpened at a low angle has much less tendency to cause those splits or running cracks than one sharpened at a high angle. Also you should try removing some wood from the center before you cut to the final line.  Cut in with your chisel about 1/32" inside the final edge (pencil) line.  Remove the wood that will have to come out and then use a very sharp chisel to pare the residual wood out to you final edge.  And don't try to go too deep at one cut.

Tom

[rich pierce]

I agree; probably the chisels have too blunt an angle.  I never go with the angle as delivered for inletting chisels.  I get closer to 22 degrees.

This is one of those things that would be easy to diagnose in a minute if we were there.

[tbailey]

Thanks to all  for your input.  I will try to sharpen my chisels at a 22 degree angle and also use a x-acto knife.

t.bailey

[Jim Filipski]

Sorry tbailey if I have miss-interpreted your post but that is the only time I have seen splintering ...too tight of  mortice!
JWF

[Dphariss]

If its a crack...
If the crack opens when the part is installed the inlet is a little too tight.
Install the part and fill the crack with glue as much as possible.
Remove the part and let the glue set.
Re-inlet part using less force.
Crack may have been caused by inletting or it could be a wind shake or a crack from the tree being felled or the log/lumber being mis-handled in some way.
Dan

[northmn]

I sometimes use a mallet to cut across grain but always line with a sharp knife usually a X-acto.  Hand chisel any cuts running with the grain.  With a very sharp chisel I never needed a mallet with the grain.  Use scrapers to fine tune the inletting.

DP

[Acer Saccharum]

don't smoke the crack.

Sometimes it's the wood. Honest to god sugar maple is not likely to split. Does the wood dent when you press your fingernail into it? if you scrape across grain, does it crumble off in splinters? Or does it shave off in curls?

I like your line of thinking Dan. If the crack opens, it's the part forcing the wood apart. If this is the case, get some glue in there and clamp it up(without the part in place). Then re-inlet.

got pictures?

[T*O*F]

don't smoke the crack.

And don't get your nose too close either.