For anyone wondering why I'm being such a prig about mortise size, here's the point. The oval bolstered chisels seem to be little used for reasons stated here.
When I got my first chisels, I used them to cut mortises that were better cut with a firmer, but I did it because I had them. I also followed a method that was bevel toward the waste side. Warm fuzzies - new tools, and mortises made.
At some point, I got a socket mortise chisel that was sash in size and it was trapezoidal (i had a LN mortise chisel set early on - they were dead square and in sash mortises, who cares - in hardwood mortises 1 1/2 inches deep, they become a real pain). The socket mortise was faster to use in cabinet mortises than teh oval bolstered chisels, and it registered well enough with enough height to make it easy to cut a mortise that didn't suffer faults of wander.
So, if a small relatively common chisel does better (less effort), why bother with the pigsticker. The mortise needs to be both long enough and deep enough.
When I got my first chisels, I used them to cut mortises that were better cut with a firmer, but I did it because I had them. I also followed a method that was bevel toward the waste side. Warm fuzzies - new tools, and mortises made.
At some point, I got a socket mortise chisel that was sash in size and it was trapezoidal (i had a LN mortise chisel set early on - they were dead square and in sash mortises, who cares - in hardwood mortises 1 1/2 inches deep, they become a real pain). The socket mortise was faster to use in cabinet mortises than teh oval bolstered chisels, and it registered well enough with enough height to make it easy to cut a mortise that didn't suffer faults of wander.
So, if a small relatively common chisel does better (less effort), why bother with the pigsticker. The mortise needs to be both long enough and deep enough.