Framing chisel...what's it good for?

It’s fore serious chopping, digging chips out. As you can probably guess by it’s size and heft you’d be challenged to try and destroy it.

-- Glen, Vernon B.C. Canada

Timber framing

-- My purpose in life: Making sawdust

Yep. they are for timber framing, or if you are one of those who absolutely has to have a Roubo bench then they are great for the mortises.

-- Just because you’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean it’s not incredibly stupid.

sharpen it up nice and use it for a slick perhaps

Thank you all.

JGM, yes, I’ve had a new bench on my mind and have been slowly getting chisels to help out on the job down the road. I like the idea of using this on mortises for the new bench. I picked up a 2” Witherby firming chisel recently too for that purpose.

And thanks Barry for the kind offer as a curio. Truth be told, I’m taken with it. It’s nice to have this very manly chisel on in my shop.

Keep the faith woodworking brothers.
Brad

-- "People's lives are their own rewards or punishments."

Framing chisels make for good mortise chisels.

-- Gary Roberts, http://toolemera.com

I have a few chisels similar to yours. As Gary mentioned, they can be highly effective mortise chisels.
Don’t worry, you’ll hit a situation where that beast will be the ONLY tool for the job.
Just recently, I used mine to chop some ginormous dados into a few doug fir 4×4s. I’m pretty sure my regular bench chisels would never speak to me again if I imposed such a task on them.

I have one in that range (but 1-1/4 wide) that is my go to chisel. I only reach for the little dainty ones when it won’t do. That extra mass is wonderful when trimming things. The extra thick blade makes it easy to ride against an edge without jumping over or digging in.

-- Woodworking shouldn't cost a fortune: http://lowbudgetwoodworker.blogspot.com/

That’s interesting David. I know what you mean about jumping over the edge. When you say it’s your “go to” chisel, are you using it to clean up dados, tenons and such?

-- "People's lives are their own rewards or punishments."

That or just to hack away and split off wood. Clean out mortises. Knock off an edge. Clean out a rabbet. Big chisels are really delicate instruments. Long handles give a lot more accuracy. You can clean off an entire face of a tenon. Turn it over and let it ride on the bevel and it will limit the depth of cut.

Here is a video showing one way of using it to remove a lot of stock:

-- Woodworking shouldn't cost a fortune: http://lowbudgetwoodworker.blogspot.com/