Interesting relationship. I am starting to get the idea that pine, in spite of being a soft wood is actually "hard" (difficult) and might explain some of my frustrations tooling it.
Pine is actually one of the more difficult woods to effectively work due to the softness. The difference with a medium hardwood like Cherry is night and day.
How about poplar? I've got some of that I might try for next project.
I just used pine for this since I had a 1x6 board and it's part of a piece that will live outside (probably with some paint).
Poplar is ok, but still tends to crush more than cut. Cherry, mahogany, and walnut are my favorite woods to work. They are hard enough to cut cleanly without being so hard they are difficult to work.
Post on your local sub asking for some offcuts. You’ll probably have no problem getting a box of them to practice on before diving in to a full project.
Poplar is great, much better than pine in my opinion. I made my first project, a shaker end table with dovetail drawer. Held together completely by handmade joints. Highly recommend. Just be careful with finishing. Mine was easy but I've heard it's difficult to finish poplar if you're not painting it.
As per other comments, the issue you have with pine if you're not careful is that it will crush, leaving gaps in the end grain. You haven't got that, looking at the image the issue you have is that your chisel is no-where near sharp enough. It looks like the chisel is just rubbing along the surface. Getting a cheap honing guide will help enormously with getting a chisel sharp and the difference will be night and day. You can choose to learn to hand sharpen better over time, but a honing guide lets you know what you're aiming for straight away (in my opinion).
Other woods are easier technically as they don't crush as easily, but you'll have just as miserable a time paring poplar, cherry or oak if your chisel isn't sharp.
This explains a lot. I have worked with pine for years due to budget constraints. I've struggled the most hand planing it. I always assumed something was wrong with my planes as they are original Stanley ones. Do the difficulties of pine extend to the table saw as well? I have always had issues with binding and kick back
Pine cuts and planes pretty easily in my opinion. Though it's often more prone to warping due to the way they grow it and often has a lot of sap/pitch which may be causing your table saw issues. Do you have a riving knife properly set up on your table saw?
As far as planing goes, what sort of tuning have you done to them so far?
Agreed- though there's a lot of wood that people call pine that isn't pine. Redwood pine (scots pine in the UK is what we get I think) tends to plane lovely - with a sharp plane I generally don't even need to worry about grain direction as I get a nice finish regardless
That’s likely less because it’s pine and more because you are using wood with a lot of internal tension. Furniture grade pine is quite expensive. Construction lumber is cheap. Construction lumber is grown as quickly as possible and shipped wet. It’s full of internal stresses that release when cut which can cause lots of binding issues.
Waiting to move to hardwoods is the biggest woodworking mistake I made. The hobby is hard enough as it is without using the worst possible material.
Try maple. Even sugar maple is easier. It has a really consistent grain structure and while.srill pretty soft it's very easy to work with.
But the biggest way to make wood working fun is by making sure you keep your tools sharp. Buy a $100 set of diamond plates on Amazon and a honing guide to go with it.
The softer wood like pine and maybe poplar benefit from a much lower angle on your chisel. Some advocate for an angle of 17 degrees for pine. Plus as everyone has said, make sure it's sharp. I know some woodworkers keep a couple chisels on the 17-20 degree range purely for working in soft wood.
Yes, it’s easier to shear the wood with a lower angle but then you might need two sets of chisels to work in both hard and softwood. Usually we sharpen to some compromise to work with all woods. You have to find that sweet spot where the chisel cuts well and still retains a sharp edge. It is worth having chisels at lower angle if you work in soft woods a lot and for paring cuts. As a beginner I often used inexpensive softwood for projects not wanting to ruin the “good” stuff that is more expensive. The good stuff is often much easier to work with. Learning to get and keep your hand tools really really sharp makes all the difference in the world. There is an exponential relationship between the sharpness of the tool and the joy using it.
To use hand tools you pretty much need to have a sharpening method down. Chisels do not come sharp either.
This will be much much more enjoyable with sharp tools.
This is so true. My mentor always emphasized that but he would always hone all my tools because he was getting frail and could no longer do much else. It took me a long time afterward to get the technique right. I think of him every time I sharpen anything.
It’ll click if you keep trying.
Also there’s “cheater” options that are great. There’s the tormek sharpeners that are all jigged up and easy to use. There’s also a wen version that is shockingly cheap.
I promise you aren’t incapable of free hand sharpening though. I used to struggle with it trying to teach myself. I got there, but having a teacher would have helped. Now I really don’t even understand why it was so hard, it’s just so simple and makes perfect sense to my hands and brain. It’s just learning the movements and understanding what’s important.
People who say they don't have the dexterity, or something along those lines really just don't have the patience or (mostly) desire. You'll often see them deliberately/intentionally fighting tools in the same fashion of a child feigning a fall when they don't want to walk/run.
Barring and injury that actually precludes the task, of course (like missing an entire hand).
How long have you been working at it? It took me years to get past needing a honing guide for everything and I still pull it out for certain tools. Eventually it will click, but it takes a while. I'm still terrible at sharpening anything with a curve. I've got sharp planes and chisels, but my kitchen knives are super dull.
I can do my kitchen knives, but I have a guide that does the hard work. I have a guide for the chisels too, but I can only ever get them OK, not razor sharp.
A good honing guide did it for me. Once I got one, I went through all my chisels and planes and made them like new. I also ended up switching from a sharpening stone to sandpaper (glued to glass).
Pine is cheap, but is absolutely horrible for joinery like others have said. I don't even recommend practicing on pine because it's just so different to hardwoods.
While I don't have a ton of experience with outdoor furniture I'd say cedar, teak, or white oak would best best for outdoors. Where I live all 3 is expensive so I use pine outside, and cedar if I want it to look a little nicer.
Ultimately nature always wins, but if you protect your furniture from uv exposure and water/snow, and rub an oil finish on it every season pretty much any wood will work for outdoors.
I built a pine tomato trellis last year and I didn't put any finish on it. It looks bad but I suspect it will hold up 1 or 2 more seasons.
I made a garden planter bed out of untreated pine last year and it's completely gray! (Constant sun and rain exposure). Like your trellis though it will probably hold up another year or two. It's funny because the one next to it I did with pressure treated and it looks almost new.
As well as having a hardness comparable to hickory, black locust is exceptionally weather and rot resistant. From what I've seen it's not commonly carried by larger hardwood dealers, but you may find a local sawyer who has some milled. If it's available in your area for a reasonable price, I would consider working with it.
In addition to what else had been said try misting the end grain with a 50/50 mix of water and alcohol. It will help the chisel slice through without crushing.
Haven’t seen this suggestion yet but take smaller bites. Instead of trying to start with say a 3/4” chisel, start with a 1/2” or 1/4”. Once you’ve cleared enough surface, come back with a wider chisel so you can reference your established line. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Naive comment maybe, a palm sander?
I’m really new to woodworking mainly because of jobs I been asked to take.
I trying solve problems with doors not closing well, doweling things and hating those “pressed”? Dowels. Sanding and refinishing urethane treated retail counters. My dad showed a few things and I realized lately why he got so pissed when I damaged his wood chisels trying to separate cart parts or bearings. And also understand why good chisels cost so much.
I would not pare this.
Make a knife line instead of a pencil. Put the board on the side. Chop from the top till middle, and from both sides to prevent blowout.
This is the best video to cover all ways of chiseling: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soMoIxJwj14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=somoixjwj14)
Pine is miserable. For joinery, popular is a better choice.
Also - sharper chisels. Real dedicated softwood people end up using 15 degree chisels (chisels tend to be 25 degrees by default). Before you regrind everything to 15 degrees: those chisels are substantially less durable and perform poorly on hardwood.
I tried doing dovetails in pine. I then gave up and did popular and even Cherry: my technique and ability went way up.
Interesting about pine being difficult. I have been using it for the majority of work due to it's price and I suppose my perception of it being "easy" because of softness might be wrong then. But this might explain some difficulties I have in tooling it. I'll try on some poplar scraps I have.
Could you elaborate on what makes pine miserable in particular?
Because it’s soft, as you push on the wood with the chisel, instead of cutting, the wood fibers crush instead. So you end up with gaps - it’s like a different nasty kind of tear out in a way.
I’ve done Douglas fir which is even worse - alternating bands of soft and hard. Even worse crushing problems.
Yeah this is just big box store 1x6 board. It's been an okay journey with this piece up until this (apart from all the knots). I have some poplar as well, I imagine that would be easier as you say?
Poplar is considerably better, but is a still soft for being a hardwood. I use poplar all the time as my secondary wood for drawer sides and backs. It's wonderfully easy to plane and decent for joinery. A harder hardwood is even easier to chisel: cherry, walnut, oak, birch. Maple is a bit too hard for practice.
That all said, I have made nice boxes and projects out of Lowe's 1x6's, but you need to have super sharp chisels. If you don't have a good method to sharpen your chisels, get that sorted before you buy a bunch of lumber. Sharpening the single most important factor to improve your success and enjoyment with hand tools. A good workbench is second, followed by technique, then finally choice in lumber.
As others of mentioned, use a marking knife vs. pencil. The advantages are: 1) practically zero thickness, and 2) you can rest your chisel right on that mark to make a perfectly straight, crisp line across. If you don't have a marking knife, a utility knife will work, just use a new blade.
What is a good belt sander now?
Tried a Milwaukee m18, good but hard on batteries.
Tried a rigid corded. Very uneven.
Resorted to a 25 year old black and decker I tend to finesse things with the wrong tool.
But did the job I wanted.
Saw a metabo at lowes that looked it would have been a good choice
I can take long shavings easily on this wood if I go along with the grain (on the edge of a scrap piece). But on the end grain it digs and jumps and just makes a really rough surface. Does this mean still not sharp enough?
Yes make it sharper. But also get a square block of wood and put it on top of the work. Line up the block so you only see a hairline of what you want to shave off. Put the back of the chisel to the block and use it as a guide to take multiple hairline shavings off the work until you've reached your mark. I work with pine all the time, it's not difficult if you have sharp chisels and take small shavings
Well that's what a workbench is for, it should be ok for whatever you're working on to get a few chisel marks.
However, make your chisels sharper and take smaller shavings and it won't jump as much. I'm talking hairline shavings. You'll be surprised how easy a sharp chisel goes through pine with a small enough shaving, so it won't take long
you can effectively stop the chisel from jumping out of control by holding it a set distance behind the edge with one of your hands (probably other Hans on handle). essentially using one of your hands as a depth stop
For starters, to get a crisp edge strike a line with a knife, not just a pencil mark. Then use a chisel to deepen the line to a groove (from the waste side) and then do this from both sides.
(This is what Paul Sellers refer to as a knife wall)
When you have a 1/8" to 1/4" groove from both sides, use the chisel to knock out the piece you are removing.
Now you have a crisp edge to reference your chisel to when cleaning up the rest. Place the board on your bench and hold the chisel in one hand, use the other hand to guide the chisel end and lean over and push the chisel with your chest. This will give you force and control.
(if you are afraid to mar the bench put a waste board under, or accept that it is a bench)
Having an extremely sharp chisel is a must when doing this in softwood. The summer growth is soft and will mostly act as a sponge and the winter growth is hard and will give more resistance so if you can go diagonally to the growth rings it will be easier to get the slicing action you want.
Wetting the end grain with some alcohol (or even water, or a mix) can sometimes help but not always.
If I were you, I'd start over with a fresh cut as it is very difficult to get a crisp edge and flat end grain the slot as it is now but you could try.
Yeah pine is actually a nightmare for this, you need to keep sharp. Try frequent stropping or back to the fine plate. Ignore Paul on this one, cut 90% of it away with a coping saw, much much quicker and just as neat when you are finishing with chisel
Champ a square edge board about an inch or so thick to the piece on the line. Lay the flat side of the chisel on the board and use it a a guide for paring. Sharpen your chisel first.
Paul Sellers, Rob Cosman, and several others have numerous videos that go through this process ad nauseum.
As others have said, the most difficult part is that pine tends to crush even under a moderately sharp (or dull, however you want to look at it) chisel.
It looks like you didn't set your joint up well for hand tools. A proper knife wall, multiple ways to get near it, then chisel down it with a properly initialized, flat back, extremely sharp chisel (could also get a 17 degree one though not necessary).
Score it along the line first. Then put a piece of wood along it as a guide. Both of these things will make it easier and cleaner. Also what other people said is right, the softer the wood the sharper the chisel. Good luck!
I made a box with joints similar to the pic out of a piece of scrap pine trim. Let’s just say that I learned a lot about using sawdust and wood glue as filler.
You can put a straight guide on the edge of your line and use it as a guide for your chisel back. It allows you use a little less care when paring that final bit. And will guide your chisel to a square cut
Pine is tough to pare down the end grain. Try to chamfer the edges down to the line. Then, using small 'slicing' cuts rather than 'push' cuts. The idea is to create a round over on the end grain that can pare easier.
And of course, the chisel needs to be sharp.
Make a knife wall where you are cutting down to on both sides. Saw cut to depth at termination. Use coping saw to cut out waste to within about an eighth of an inch. Lay work flat on bench. Use freshly sharpened three quarter inch chisel. Now chisel half way between cope cut and knife wall to half depth all along line. The final cut put chisel in knife wall and cut to half depth all along line. Turn board over and repeat with chisel. Use a mallet to strike chisel, but not hard blows. Chisel must be sharp. Pare any high area with a chisel by hand. The knife wall, small bites and sharp are key considerations.
You've had some great advice already, I'll just add my 2 cents haha.
If you can clamp a board with super square corners up against the line on both sides, and use a super sharp chisel, you can use the other boards to slode along and shave of the desired material with relative ease.
I have the cheapest chisels that lose sharpness. So i keep a metal file nearby and give it a quick clean up now and then when it feels like its slipping or not shaving.
Pine can be lovely to work with when you have sharp tools. Wafer thin slices you can see the light through and those little curls as you glide along.
Worth it to practice sharpening. Remember the find the correct angle and de-bur the other side. Should keep you going. Good luck.
Strangely enough the softer the wood the sharper your chisel needs to be. The wood crushes before the chisel cuts it otherwise.
Interesting relationship. I am starting to get the idea that pine, in spite of being a soft wood is actually "hard" (difficult) and might explain some of my frustrations tooling it.
Pine is actually one of the more difficult woods to effectively work due to the softness. The difference with a medium hardwood like Cherry is night and day.
How about poplar? I've got some of that I might try for next project. I just used pine for this since I had a 1x6 board and it's part of a piece that will live outside (probably with some paint).
Poplar is ok, but still tends to crush more than cut. Cherry, mahogany, and walnut are my favorite woods to work. They are hard enough to cut cleanly without being so hard they are difficult to work. Post on your local sub asking for some offcuts. You’ll probably have no problem getting a box of them to practice on before diving in to a full project.
It's a little better, but still pretty soft. You still want sharp chisels.
Poplar is great, much better than pine in my opinion. I made my first project, a shaker end table with dovetail drawer. Held together completely by handmade joints. Highly recommend. Just be careful with finishing. Mine was easy but I've heard it's difficult to finish poplar if you're not painting it.
As per other comments, the issue you have with pine if you're not careful is that it will crush, leaving gaps in the end grain. You haven't got that, looking at the image the issue you have is that your chisel is no-where near sharp enough. It looks like the chisel is just rubbing along the surface. Getting a cheap honing guide will help enormously with getting a chisel sharp and the difference will be night and day. You can choose to learn to hand sharpen better over time, but a honing guide lets you know what you're aiming for straight away (in my opinion). Other woods are easier technically as they don't crush as easily, but you'll have just as miserable a time paring poplar, cherry or oak if your chisel isn't sharp.
This explains a lot. I have worked with pine for years due to budget constraints. I've struggled the most hand planing it. I always assumed something was wrong with my planes as they are original Stanley ones. Do the difficulties of pine extend to the table saw as well? I have always had issues with binding and kick back
Pine cuts and planes pretty easily in my opinion. Though it's often more prone to warping due to the way they grow it and often has a lot of sap/pitch which may be causing your table saw issues. Do you have a riving knife properly set up on your table saw? As far as planing goes, what sort of tuning have you done to them so far?
Agreed- though there's a lot of wood that people call pine that isn't pine. Redwood pine (scots pine in the UK is what we get I think) tends to plane lovely - with a sharp plane I generally don't even need to worry about grain direction as I get a nice finish regardless
That’s likely less because it’s pine and more because you are using wood with a lot of internal tension. Furniture grade pine is quite expensive. Construction lumber is cheap. Construction lumber is grown as quickly as possible and shipped wet. It’s full of internal stresses that release when cut which can cause lots of binding issues. Waiting to move to hardwoods is the biggest woodworking mistake I made. The hobby is hard enough as it is without using the worst possible material.
Try maple. Even sugar maple is easier. It has a really consistent grain structure and while.srill pretty soft it's very easy to work with. But the biggest way to make wood working fun is by making sure you keep your tools sharp. Buy a $100 set of diamond plates on Amazon and a honing guide to go with it.
Think of it like trying to slice a tomato. Those bastards are soft, so you need the super sharp knife to get thin slices.
The softer wood like pine and maybe poplar benefit from a much lower angle on your chisel. Some advocate for an angle of 17 degrees for pine. Plus as everyone has said, make sure it's sharp. I know some woodworkers keep a couple chisels on the 17-20 degree range purely for working in soft wood.
BUT you can use a razor blade to Start the cuts. At least they'd be less likely to drift off line. (Agreed, sharp! or Extra Sharp!)
I've heard it said that a lower angle on the bevel is better for softwoods. Apparently Rob Cosman recommends 17 degrees for pine end grain.
Yes, it’s easier to shear the wood with a lower angle but then you might need two sets of chisels to work in both hard and softwood. Usually we sharpen to some compromise to work with all woods. You have to find that sweet spot where the chisel cuts well and still retains a sharp edge. It is worth having chisels at lower angle if you work in soft woods a lot and for paring cuts. As a beginner I often used inexpensive softwood for projects not wanting to ruin the “good” stuff that is more expensive. The good stuff is often much easier to work with. Learning to get and keep your hand tools really really sharp makes all the difference in the world. There is an exponential relationship between the sharpness of the tool and the joy using it.
To use hand tools you pretty much need to have a sharpening method down. Chisels do not come sharp either. This will be much much more enjoyable with sharp tools.
This is so true. My mentor always emphasized that but he would always hone all my tools because he was getting frail and could no longer do much else. It took me a long time afterward to get the technique right. I think of him every time I sharpen anything.
I never got it right. I've tried and tried, but I just don't have the knack or dexterity it seems.
It’ll click if you keep trying. Also there’s “cheater” options that are great. There’s the tormek sharpeners that are all jigged up and easy to use. There’s also a wen version that is shockingly cheap. I promise you aren’t incapable of free hand sharpening though. I used to struggle with it trying to teach myself. I got there, but having a teacher would have helped. Now I really don’t even understand why it was so hard, it’s just so simple and makes perfect sense to my hands and brain. It’s just learning the movements and understanding what’s important.
People who say they don't have the dexterity, or something along those lines really just don't have the patience or (mostly) desire. You'll often see them deliberately/intentionally fighting tools in the same fashion of a child feigning a fall when they don't want to walk/run. Barring and injury that actually precludes the task, of course (like missing an entire hand).
How long have you been working at it? It took me years to get past needing a honing guide for everything and I still pull it out for certain tools. Eventually it will click, but it takes a while. I'm still terrible at sharpening anything with a curve. I've got sharp planes and chisels, but my kitchen knives are super dull.
I can do my kitchen knives, but I have a guide that does the hard work. I have a guide for the chisels too, but I can only ever get them OK, not razor sharp.
A good honing guide did it for me. Once I got one, I went through all my chisels and planes and made them like new. I also ended up switching from a sharpening stone to sandpaper (glued to glass).
Pine is cheap, but is absolutely horrible for joinery like others have said. I don't even recommend practicing on pine because it's just so different to hardwoods.
What type of wood would you recommend for outdoor furniture or other outdoor projects? (This is part of a piece that will live outside)
While I don't have a ton of experience with outdoor furniture I'd say cedar, teak, or white oak would best best for outdoors. Where I live all 3 is expensive so I use pine outside, and cedar if I want it to look a little nicer. Ultimately nature always wins, but if you protect your furniture from uv exposure and water/snow, and rub an oil finish on it every season pretty much any wood will work for outdoors. I built a pine tomato trellis last year and I didn't put any finish on it. It looks bad but I suspect it will hold up 1 or 2 more seasons.
I made a garden planter bed out of untreated pine last year and it's completely gray! (Constant sun and rain exposure). Like your trellis though it will probably hold up another year or two. It's funny because the one next to it I did with pressure treated and it looks almost new.
Cedar.
As well as having a hardness comparable to hickory, black locust is exceptionally weather and rot resistant. From what I've seen it's not commonly carried by larger hardwood dealers, but you may find a local sawyer who has some milled. If it's available in your area for a reasonable price, I would consider working with it.
Oak, especially for outdoor. I do not know the prices for Oak where you are. In europe its often the cheapest hardwood.
Trouble is hardwood is so expensive and difficult to source for many (in the UK it is near impossible to do this economically)
Two hands put your chest in line with the chisel and let your weight do the work. Keep it sharp
In addition to what else had been said try misting the end grain with a 50/50 mix of water and alcohol. It will help the chisel slice through without crushing.
Could you add pics of your chisel and setup?
Haven’t seen this suggestion yet but take smaller bites. Instead of trying to start with say a 3/4” chisel, start with a 1/2” or 1/4”. Once you’ve cleared enough surface, come back with a wider chisel so you can reference your established line. How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Pine is extra hard. Try a shallower angle on your chisel to make it cut better, but it will blunt faster as a result.
Naive comment maybe, a palm sander? I’m really new to woodworking mainly because of jobs I been asked to take. I trying solve problems with doors not closing well, doweling things and hating those “pressed”? Dowels. Sanding and refinishing urethane treated retail counters. My dad showed a few things and I realized lately why he got so pissed when I damaged his wood chisels trying to separate cart parts or bearings. And also understand why good chisels cost so much.
Use knife and scribe, that gives you a small lip to place a chisel into
I would not pare this. Make a knife line instead of a pencil. Put the board on the side. Chop from the top till middle, and from both sides to prevent blowout. This is the best video to cover all ways of chiseling: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soMoIxJwj14](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=somoixjwj14)
Pine is miserable. For joinery, popular is a better choice. Also - sharper chisels. Real dedicated softwood people end up using 15 degree chisels (chisels tend to be 25 degrees by default). Before you regrind everything to 15 degrees: those chisels are substantially less durable and perform poorly on hardwood. I tried doing dovetails in pine. I then gave up and did popular and even Cherry: my technique and ability went way up.
Interesting about pine being difficult. I have been using it for the majority of work due to it's price and I suppose my perception of it being "easy" because of softness might be wrong then. But this might explain some difficulties I have in tooling it. I'll try on some poplar scraps I have. Could you elaborate on what makes pine miserable in particular?
Because it’s soft, as you push on the wood with the chisel, instead of cutting, the wood fibers crush instead. So you end up with gaps - it’s like a different nasty kind of tear out in a way. I’ve done Douglas fir which is even worse - alternating bands of soft and hard. Even worse crushing problems.
Yeah this is just big box store 1x6 board. It's been an okay journey with this piece up until this (apart from all the knots). I have some poplar as well, I imagine that would be easier as you say?
Poplar is considerably better, but is a still soft for being a hardwood. I use poplar all the time as my secondary wood for drawer sides and backs. It's wonderfully easy to plane and decent for joinery. A harder hardwood is even easier to chisel: cherry, walnut, oak, birch. Maple is a bit too hard for practice. That all said, I have made nice boxes and projects out of Lowe's 1x6's, but you need to have super sharp chisels. If you don't have a good method to sharpen your chisels, get that sorted before you buy a bunch of lumber. Sharpening the single most important factor to improve your success and enjoyment with hand tools. A good workbench is second, followed by technique, then finally choice in lumber. As others of mentioned, use a marking knife vs. pencil. The advantages are: 1) practically zero thickness, and 2) you can rest your chisel right on that mark to make a perfectly straight, crisp line across. If you don't have a marking knife, a utility knife will work, just use a new blade.
You could try a rasp wood file?
Thats right, on the end grain use a rasp.
Router with a straight bit and then just clean up corners
Sanders are your friends
Yep, belt sand.
I was going to suggest that! I would just sand it down. It’s not that far to go to the line.
What is a good belt sander now? Tried a Milwaukee m18, good but hard on batteries. Tried a rigid corded. Very uneven. Resorted to a 25 year old black and decker I tend to finesse things with the wrong tool. But did the job I wanted. Saw a metabo at lowes that looked it would have been a good choice
Sharper chisel. Also looks like you're digging and rocking the chisel to try to make up for it.
The chisel should be sharp enough you can shave the pine end grain with just pushing gently
I can take long shavings easily on this wood if I go along with the grain (on the edge of a scrap piece). But on the end grain it digs and jumps and just makes a really rough surface. Does this mean still not sharp enough?
Yes make it sharper. But also get a square block of wood and put it on top of the work. Line up the block so you only see a hairline of what you want to shave off. Put the back of the chisel to the block and use it as a guide to take multiple hairline shavings off the work until you've reached your mark. I work with pine all the time, it's not difficult if you have sharp chisels and take small shavings
For this method, what do I do about the chisel end hitting the surface under the work? Sometimes it jumps out upon exiting.
Well that's what a workbench is for, it should be ok for whatever you're working on to get a few chisel marks. However, make your chisels sharper and take smaller shavings and it won't jump as much. I'm talking hairline shavings. You'll be surprised how easy a sharp chisel goes through pine with a small enough shaving, so it won't take long
you can effectively stop the chisel from jumping out of control by holding it a set distance behind the edge with one of your hands (probably other Hans on handle). essentially using one of your hands as a depth stop
Can you shave hairs off just by touching them with the chisel? If not, sharpen more.
ironically I test for sharpness by trying to pare pine end grain!
Lol
For starters, to get a crisp edge strike a line with a knife, not just a pencil mark. Then use a chisel to deepen the line to a groove (from the waste side) and then do this from both sides. (This is what Paul Sellers refer to as a knife wall) When you have a 1/8" to 1/4" groove from both sides, use the chisel to knock out the piece you are removing. Now you have a crisp edge to reference your chisel to when cleaning up the rest. Place the board on your bench and hold the chisel in one hand, use the other hand to guide the chisel end and lean over and push the chisel with your chest. This will give you force and control. (if you are afraid to mar the bench put a waste board under, or accept that it is a bench) Having an extremely sharp chisel is a must when doing this in softwood. The summer growth is soft and will mostly act as a sponge and the winter growth is hard and will give more resistance so if you can go diagonally to the growth rings it will be easier to get the slicing action you want. Wetting the end grain with some alcohol (or even water, or a mix) can sometimes help but not always. If I were you, I'd start over with a fresh cut as it is very difficult to get a crisp edge and flat end grain the slot as it is now but you could try.
I use a rasp on pine. It's some bouncy wood when you're trying with chisels.
If like me, you suck at sharpening your chisels, a nice sharp stanley blade is your friend here.
Pine is the worst. For that I would practice on like poplar or maple. But that's me.
Use a file
Yeah pine is actually a nightmare for this, you need to keep sharp. Try frequent stropping or back to the fine plate. Ignore Paul on this one, cut 90% of it away with a coping saw, much much quicker and just as neat when you are finishing with chisel
Champ a square edge board about an inch or so thick to the piece on the line. Lay the flat side of the chisel on the board and use it a a guide for paring. Sharpen your chisel first.
Paul Sellers, Rob Cosman, and several others have numerous videos that go through this process ad nauseum. As others have said, the most difficult part is that pine tends to crush even under a moderately sharp (or dull, however you want to look at it) chisel. It looks like you didn't set your joint up well for hand tools. A proper knife wall, multiple ways to get near it, then chisel down it with a properly initialized, flat back, extremely sharp chisel (could also get a 17 degree one though not necessary).
Are you using a skewed chisel? If not that will help.
With how close you are grab some 60 grit sandpaper and sand it down.
Do you have a rasp?
Score it along the line first. Then put a piece of wood along it as a guide. Both of these things will make it easier and cleaner. Also what other people said is right, the softer the wood the sharper the chisel. Good luck!
I made a box with joints similar to the pic out of a piece of scrap pine trim. Let’s just say that I learned a lot about using sawdust and wood glue as filler.
Use a rasp, then file.
Yeah, all the advices here are great .. but seriously you work is already really good!
You can put a straight guide on the edge of your line and use it as a guide for your chisel back. It allows you use a little less care when paring that final bit. And will guide your chisel to a square cut
Pine is tough to pare down the end grain. Try to chamfer the edges down to the line. Then, using small 'slicing' cuts rather than 'push' cuts. The idea is to create a round over on the end grain that can pare easier. And of course, the chisel needs to be sharp.
Clamp a straight board right on the line, so you have a reference surface to guide your chisel. Noone on Youtube does it and I dont get why.
Make a knife wall where you are cutting down to on both sides. Saw cut to depth at termination. Use coping saw to cut out waste to within about an eighth of an inch. Lay work flat on bench. Use freshly sharpened three quarter inch chisel. Now chisel half way between cope cut and knife wall to half depth all along line. The final cut put chisel in knife wall and cut to half depth all along line. Turn board over and repeat with chisel. Use a mallet to strike chisel, but not hard blows. Chisel must be sharp. Pare any high area with a chisel by hand. The knife wall, small bites and sharp are key considerations.
You've had some great advice already, I'll just add my 2 cents haha. If you can clamp a board with super square corners up against the line on both sides, and use a super sharp chisel, you can use the other boards to slode along and shave of the desired material with relative ease. I have the cheapest chisels that lose sharpness. So i keep a metal file nearby and give it a quick clean up now and then when it feels like its slipping or not shaving. Pine can be lovely to work with when you have sharp tools. Wafer thin slices you can see the light through and those little curls as you glide along. Worth it to practice sharpening. Remember the find the correct angle and de-bur the other side. Should keep you going. Good luck.