Cutting rabbets is inevitable in any woodworking project. Perhaps you are here as a novice woodworker and want to grasp a few tips to help you cut rabbets without hassle. With the right tools, you only need to have a mastery of the procedure or the whole process of cutting rabbets before you begin your first project. We are going to give you a step-by-step guide to cutting a rabbet with a chisel to help you start over with the simplest tool, chisel.
To cut a rabbet with a chisel, you need to mark both sides of the wood with deep lines along with the depth and width of the rabbet that you want to cut. Once you have marked the two lines with a gauge, slice up some wood along the marked lines to create a demarcation or a guide for the chisel before doing deep cuts. After that, use a chisel to chop out some waste wood along the length of the rabbet, then carefully pare away the remaining material as you finish up your rabbet.
Rabbeting is an important process in cabinet and shelves construction where a cut on the edge or end of plywood. A rabbet is then created using a chisel or any other hand tool to make a lip that will fit snuggly or overlap with another rabbet of another wood.
4 Steps to cut a rabbet with a chisel
Cutting a rabbet with a chisel is an enjoyable task when you have a grasp of all the steps involved. Even as a beginner, you don’t have to worry since the below steps will be helpful.
Step-1: Marking
Begin by doing the marking on your wood piece. At this stage, you need to measure the width and the depth of the rabbet that you want to cut with the help of a chisel, then mark it with a knife.
Step-2: Create a guide
After you have marked the depth and the width, create a guide by cutting slightly along the marked edges to create shoulders that will guide the chisel as you go deep into the wood.
Step-3: Chop along the joint
With the guiding marks that you have previously made, chop along the joint and across the grain until you have removed the wood up to where you have marked.
Step-4: Clean up to finish
Now clean it up to the inside corner of the rabbet as you finish up. There are many ways to do it, you can use anything from a micro-fiber cloth to a blow-drier.
Useful Tips for Making a Good Rabbet in Wood
Whether you are a beginner or a veteran woodworker, making good rabbets will require you to understand your tool and the type of wood that you are working on. A few tips include:
Using a Sharp Chisel
A sharp chisel will help you get the desired results for your rabbets. Using a blunt chisel will not slice the wood smoothly and can be frustrating when paring wood in rabbets. Therefore, to achieve the precise cut that you want, ensure that your chisel is always sharp. You can sharpen it before starting your project or when you sense that they are not working as usual.
Understanding soft and hardwood rabbets
For a beginner, it is important to understand the basics when working with hard and softwood to make rabbets. A chisel can tear softwood easily and even with a freshly sharpened chisel, it may compress the wood before cutting it. That may make it even hard to get two pieces of softwood rabbets to have a snuggly fit or overlap with a sharp and clean angle and without using a filler.
In addition to that, every time the chisel touches the corner of the rabbet it may leave a dent and by the time you will be done and ready to put your things together, the inside corner may have been left with small gaps that will need to be filled.
However, with practice and experience, you may create perfect gap-less rabbets whether you are using hardwood or softwood. For hardwood, a little experience and use of a sharp chisel can produce perfect rabbets that may not need to be filled before joining.
In a nutshell, softwood is easy to get deformed, dent, or overcut, and may end up with gaps where the joints don’t meet up perfectly.
Use dry wood
To make perfect joints, it is always the best practice to use dry wood since with dry wood, no more shrinkage would otherwise leave some gaps on the joints. Overly dry wood may also split or crack when nailing. However, for rabbets that may not need nailing, overly dry wood is just okay to use.
On the other hand, wood that is too wet is not a good choice to use for rabbets. This is because it contains so much moisture that when it loses it, the wood can shrink hence leaving out gaps on the joints or even causing a bend.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that the wood doesn’t contain moisture, and is dry enough to be used for rabbets. You may also learn the different ways of drying wood before you do your craft.
Alternative Hand Tools to Cut a Rabbet
There are different types of hand tools that you can use to make rabbets. Apart from a chisel, there is a rabbet plane, a cross-cut saw that you can use together with the chisel, and a router plane among other tools.
Rabbet plane
Rabbet planes are of different types and are easier to use than a chisel. With a rabbet plane, you will just need to set the width and the depth where the cuts will stop. After that, then you can run the plane along the wood until the cutting stops. There are wooden and metal planes that you can use to cut your rabbets and you can use any that you may prefer for your project.
Moving fillister plane
The difference between a moving fillister plane and a rabbet plane is that a fillister plane has more additional guidance or an adjustable fence that you can use to guide by setting the width and the depth that will help the plane to stop when that depth is reached.
Crosscut saw
This can work with a chisel if you want to fasten the process of making rabbets. Of course, a chisel is a standalone tool and can make rabbets without any other tool. But with a cross-cut saw, after you have marked the depth and width, you can make cross-cuts with a saw down along the length of the rabbet then chisel the waste away.
Router plane
This is another hand tool that is useful in woodworking and can be used to smoothen sunken panels, and for the depressions that are below the surface of the wood. It is a great tool also for making rabbets and after you set the width of the rabbet, you can run the router plane along the marked line. After each run, you can reset the depth of the cutting iron until you achieve your desired depth. Resetting the depth of the iron after each run can slow the process hence making a router plane one of the slowest hand tools for rabbets.
What Kind of Chisel Can I Use to Cut a Rabbet?
A chisel is the most indispensable and multifaceted tool that every woodworker must-have. Whether for cutting rabbets, or other purposes, it is worthwhile to have the best chisel that you are assured of in terms of efficiency, strength, durability, and overall quality.
The 150 Series Stanley Chisel set is a great choice for cutting rabbets in perfect precision. This comes as three pieces and you can use each to achieve different purposes on your rabbet, and depending on the depth and size of your rabbet.
As a woodworker, rabbets are inevitable in your projects. Getting a razor-sharp chisel of this nature would help ease your work. The advantages of this awesome chisel include but are not limited to:
- Comes with a comfortable and durable polypropylene handle.
- The forged carbon steel blades offer durability and strength.
- The blade does not rust due to the lacquer coating.
- Comes in three sizes to suit different chiseling needs.
Another awesome set of chisels that competes closely with the Stanley Series is the GREBSTK Professional Wood Chisel. This comes in four sets and makes a perfect companion for any woodworker, and is also good for cutting rabbets.
How to make a rabbet with hand tools video:
Key takeaways from the video:
- The video above shows how to make rabbets with hand tools such as a chisel, and a rabbet plane.
- In the video, some of the hand tools that are used include the moving fillister plane, a chisel, marking gauge, and a saw.
- There are different methods of cutting rabbets using different tools such as chisel, fillister plane, rabbet plane, and making gauge.
Final thoughts…
Using a chisel to cut rabbets is one of the most fulfilling tasks when you have a grasp and mastery of the steps. With time, you will get used to the craft, and the more rabbets you make, the finer and more satisfying results you will have. It is, therefore, worthwhile to learn the above steps if you are a beginner in making rabbets using a chisel.
