Mortising

Now the short rails are attached to the legs, it's time to do the same with the long ones. The joint here will be a mortice and tenon joint. Standard procedure, but I must confess not having too much experience with chopping mortises with a chisel. So, let's give it  a try.

First I set it up. Clamp the leg to the bench, with the mortise to be, above one of the bench legs. A piece of scrapwood is wedged in the bridle joint. Everything to get a stout and strong basis.

And then it's just a matter of chopping. I am following the method Paul Sellers demonstrated on his blog.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_NXq7_TILA

Halfway:

And one finished. Not really perfect, but servicable.

Because I want to use haunched tenons, I need to cut away a bit from the end, for the haunch. Just sawing and chiseling.

Four mortises have been cut. On to sawing the tenons.