It might seem like a mountain of a task to chop 8 large mortises, but with some patients and a calm approach, the skill grows rather quickly.

You could get away with DIY tools or make do with manual measurements; if you’re doing one or two, but when chopping 8 mortises through thick lumber, it’s just easier to invest in a mortise marking gauge and mortise chisel.

Buying tools for project at hand is a good way to avoid unnecessary purchases. The right tool to chop mortises saved me lost of time and frustration.

With sharp tools and lots of elbow grease, flattening both sides of each benchtop was fun. It wasn’t straightforward but over time I started to get the hang of it.

Wasn’t it fun playing with glue in primary school…spreading it on your hands and then pealing it off after it dried? So satisfying! Not so much fun this time around.

This is where the tools meet the lumber and we see what challenges we have to solve along the way.

Just like everything in life, one thing I’ve already realized about woodworking is that even the best laid plans will change, so it’s best to let that happen and not mull the wrong decisions.

After assessing and comparing dozens of pieces of lumber, you take home a few and you hope that once you get to work they all work out.

The first step is to go from idea to plan, which for me always includes a copious amount of research, analysis and internal debates.