This is the first thing we made with the mortiser. You can see the how it was made in this video    • Homemade Chain Mortiser (Using Chainsaw)   It could certainly be improved but it did work quite well as it is. It’s a bit low, so there’s too much leaning over, and if there was suddenly lots of jobs for it, then it would be worth making some way to move the stock timber along without clamping/unclamping it. I sharpened the chain again and there was less tearout than in the trial piece.

The timber used for this gate is only cheap white deal (spruce) because that’s all we had around – and also because I didn’t know whether I’d be wasting good wood if I couldn’t make accurate enough slots. Next time I’ll try to get some larch or Douglas Fir. Some people bolt their gates together, but they will sag unless the bolts are really tight. I used nails because they’re cheap.

The gate posts were already there – made of steel, so I had to weld up some hinges to fit both the gate and the post. All in all, a gate is quite a bit of work, but it’s a really satisfying thing to make and the mortiser saved hours of work. (I made 7 farm gates when I was a teenager for my parents – it was my first paid commission. I still remember how tedious and slow and exhausting the process was because everything was done by hand – drilling with a brace and bit, chiselling out the mortises, sawing down boards with a handsaw, the whole lot. This gate was MUCH quicker!)

Thanks to Madeline, Lisa, and Bernd they were around when it was time to creosote and hang the gate, so of course they got roped in.



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