Back in the shop, chopping mortises

A look at mortising - but first - I jinxed myself re: those boxes I have for sale in my previous post. So here’s one last chance for the carved and painted one - if anyone is interested, I’ll consider reasonable offers - email me if you want to take a shot at it. Address is peterfollansbee7@gmail.com - I’ll give it a few days to see if we can get anywhere with it.

carved & painted box, oak & pine.

OK - so today I was back in the shop after a few days here and there. Picked up the large joined table project. After finish-planing the oak stiles to their final dimension (about 3 1/4” square, 30” tall) I laid out and chopped the mortises. I do this before turning, you could do it after easily enough, but I like having the flat surfaces for holding the stile down on the bench. I had seen a period chair/table many years ago with a mortise chopped in the turned section.