Some good looking legs

I was able to get some quality time in the shop this weekend and got quite a bit done on the bench legs.  They all got cut and planed of Friday night and I was happy to see they were all still nice and square Saturday morning.  There were no internal stresses expressed due to the milling process.  That was a good indication that the wood was nice and dry and I was OK to continue working on it.  I himed and hawed for awhile trying to decide what size to make the mortise and tennons.  The plans I'm looking at both have bolts inserted to draw the joint together and don't call for a very deep mortise.  I just didn't feel comfortable with that so I went deeper with the mortise to a full inch.  I'll probably still use the draw bolt too.  I got all the mortises bored out as well as the bridle joint on the tops of the legs.  I was able to get two of the legs totally cleaned up before I had to switch to working on the cradle.  I used a 1/2 inch forsner bit to bore out  the mortises and then cleaned them up with a chisel.  One little trick I was happy to finally use was a chisel guide.  That is just a nice square piece of hard wood, hickory in my case, that you clamp to the work piece to help keep your chisel perfectly vertical.  It helps keep your mortises nice and square and smooth walled.  

The simple chisel guide 

Two finished, two rough