PROJECTS & TECHNIQUES Product tech – marking gauges To scratch or to cut? Marking gauges take the For the purpose of this article, I have lumped along the grain, many beginner woodworkers read on with an open mind. maths out of woodwork, together two fairly different tools under the struggle to keep the pin from following the I learned woodwork using a wheel gauge, name ‘marking gauge’. Traditionally, marking grain of the wood and wandering away from have recently acquired a few additional offer instant repeatability gauges employed a pin, which would engage the intended path. styles – both knife and pin – and have found the wood and basically scratch in your mark. Today there are ‘cutting gauges’, which advantages and disadvantages in each. for laying out joinery When marking across the grain, if you are employ a knife in place of the pin to cut For those staunch traditionalists set not careful, the pin will break away the fibres the fibres of the wood as it marks. In the on using pin gauges, this tip from Frank and are very helpful at the end of the cut. This can be avoided woodworking community, I have found the Klaus may come in handy: using a safe PHOTOGRAPHS BY ANNE BRIGGS BOHNETT & MARILYN GUTHRIE when dimensioning by marking two lines from opposite edges ‘knife versus pin’ debate to be nearly as edge file, the tip of pins can be shaped of the board, stopping short of the edge explosive and divisive a topic of conversation to make a more knife-like cutting action stock, as Anne and meeting in the middle. When marking as ‘the best way to sharpen a tool’, so please when marking wood. Briggs Bohnett finds out Hamilton Woodworks’ wooden ‘cutting’ gauges are small and lightweight Modern ‘wheel’ cutting gauges can often come with fine A relatively crude pin gauge can be transformed into something more accurate with the help of a safe edge file adjusters and multiple locking mechanisms Using marking gauges Not much needs to be said about hand position or technique when it comes to using marking gauges. The best advice I can give is to play around with your marking gauge of choice and decide for yourself what is most comfortable and effective. Holding your work securely will greatly add to your ease and effectiveness using a marking gauge. I have found that my bench hooks are excellent marking helpers. When marking, keep your Marking gauges: eyes on the fence of the gauge, not the knife. Be very careful to hold the fence of the gauge securely to the side of the workpiece and do not wobble, tilt or skew the gauge as you the often overlooked ’shop workhorse move it along your workpiece or your line will wander as a result. Instead of making A mortise gauge enables you to capture and translate fter the Jack plane, marking gauges one strong, heavy stroke – force increases key reference lines in pairs are my second favourite tool. There the likelihood of a wandering cut or marred Aare many reasons for this, but the first workpiece – take three strokes to mark a nice, is in the name: the tool is for gauging, not deep line. First, take a light stroke to establish measuring. As much as I hate to admit I’m the cut; a second to deepen slightly and a terrible at anything, I am absolutely rubbish at third to make a good registering surface for maths. No matter how many times I measure a saw or chisel. and calculate, it is inevitable that at least Having a range of gauges at your disposal, one piece in each of my projects will come you will soon discover that some are more out just a hair too short or too skinny. I once suitable than others for specific tasks. A small assembled an entire tabletop and somehow lightweight gauge might be better at marking didn’t notice until I actually tried to mount it baselines for dovetails, for example. Having to the base that it was a full foot too short. more than one in your tool arsenal means you With the use of marking gauges, dividers and can set a critical common dimension for an story sticks, I’ve all but eliminated maths and entire procedure and return to it later without measuring from my projects, which has since having to recalibrate the gauge, which helps ➤ saved me lots of frustration, time and money. Traditional ‘pin’ marking gauges to save valuable working time. A bench hook provides a sturdy support for marking out A wheel gauge has less tendancy to split out at the edge 42 F&C231 www.woodworkersinstitute.com www.woodworkersinstitute.com F&C231 4 3 PROJECTS & TECHNIQUES Product tech – marking gauges Why not just use Community Toolchest I met Erik Florip on Instagram about a year a pencil? ago. He is a Marine, a husband and a father. Many beginners wonder why a sharp pencil Although he is a lover of a simple life, he is and ruler won’t cover all their measuring dedicated, driven and very hard working. and marking needs. As the pencil dulls, the With Florip Toolworks, he strives to make lines will become thicker. It will be difficult quality tools ‘like they used to’. He was one to determine just where your baseline starts. of the first toolmakers to get involved with Pencils wander, rulers slip, measurements the Community Toolchest project when he are misread and forgotten. A marking gauge offered to trade one of my custom chisel creates a crisp line in the wood that doesn’t sets for one of his custom saws. I was blown vary in thickness and makes repeated away by his ingenuity and the quality of his measurements a breeze. Don’t swear off craftsmanship and I knew then he would pencils altogether, though, because tired and soon become a force to be reckoned with ageing eyes often find it helpful to fill in the The chisel registers within the knife line in the toolmaking world. When I saw his marking gauge line with pencil. Propelling or prototype for this marking gauge, I had to clutch pencils are a good companion for your have one, so we worked out another trade. marking gauge. These are used extensively “When I was young I heard an old man say Florip Toolworks wheel gauge for drafting and can be bought with fine ‘when it comes to quality, heavy is better’.” graphite leads. The indent of a marking Erik definitely took that to heart when making gauge line is also very helpful for starting a his marking gauge. This tool has some saw cut or establishing a baseline into which serious heft to it. Some things that set this a chisel can be set for consistent dovetail gauge apart from its competition are the results. solid components, a wide fence – which Using a marking gauge, or at the very gives a solid footing when pushing it against least, a marking knife and combination a workpiece – the square edges – so it won’t square, will save you many a woodworking roll off the bench – the micro-adjuster that headache. If you’re on a budget, making your can be used with one hand and a steeper own marking gauge is a fairly easy option Marking gauge in a pinch bevel on the blade, which creates a larger and there are many free resources to be registering surface as it cuts, resulting in found online. Lee Valley Veritas also makes deeper, easier to see lines. a quality wheel marking gauge at a very fair After using a 100mm Hamilton marking price. With this tool, as with any other, buy gauge in my friend Chris Kuehn’s shop, the best you can afford. I bought one. Chris then introduced me to Jeff and Jeff promptly donated a second gauge for the Community Toolchest Hamilton Woodworks marking gauge Minimise waste, Scholarship initiative – a quality toolset maximise thickness given to a woodworker in need at the end one I will always cherish because of the story fence lends itself well to laying out half-blind To get the most out of your wood, instead of the year. From our first introduction, Jeff attached. The tools Jeff makes are gorgeous dovetails and the fingernail blade design of sticking with standard dimensions and stood out to me as kind, compassionate and to look at, feel like an extension of one’s own keeps the fence pulled tight against the cutting lists, try letting the wood determine generous almost to a fault. Excited to invest hand in use and are dead accurate. The stock as you make your mark. your project dimensions. In some cases, you in the next generation of woodworkers, Jeff bodies of the tool are made of wood so they The wheel and wooden versions of may find the odd millimetre here and there is passionate about making quality tools are warm and smooth to the touch. They these tools both have incredible value in won’t make a difference to the structure, Plane to the line and is very eager to share information and are light but solid and are arguably some any toolchest. I find myself reaching for but it could take a substantial amount of techniques. Jeff is a family man through and of the best marking gauges on the market. one just as much as another. Price-wise, effort to remove. through and he has a quirky sense of humour The small gauges easily fit in the pocket of they are both on the higher end, but these Start by selecting the thinnest piece in that makes him all the more approachable.