Marking Gauge

So I've been really interested in hand tools recently, but not just hand tools; old school hand tools. It a back-to-basics feeling that's behind it and I like the fact the I'm more closely connected to the work. Not that I'm not connected with power tools is there a joke in there somewhere? its just that all that high speed and high power which works so well, has safety precautions that necessarily separate me from the work, so the work doesn't separate me from my fingers.

That, and its really satisfying to use a smoothing plane to square up a piece of stock that came out of a log 20 minutes ago.

This particular project however has very little of the lately of the log caste, just the birch wedges in the beam and the fence; the former holds the scribing blade in place, and the latter fixes the beam within the fence body. I'm a big fan of wedges.

So this is my first marking gauge, but I don't think it will be my last. I've never owned a marking gauge so just getting used to using it is fun. I've used a sharp knife to mark my work I'm actually working on a marking knife now but the gauge does things the knife and a straight edge can't do, and it does some of the same things, only better.

Long straight marks, parallel to the edge of a board: marking gauge. Square lines across the end of a board a set distance off the end: you could do it with a square and a marking knife but boy is it easy with a marking gauge.

Scrap wood marking gauge

 The fence is mahogany, and the beam is some hard-as-a-rock mystery wood from a pallet I have, and the two wedges are birch, as I mentioned.

The design of the beam is rounded on the bottom, so that when the wedge which runs over the top of of the beam is tightened, the beam is pushed down into the rounded mortise. This keeps the beam from wiggling left to right, as opposed to just top to bottom, which is what a wedge may do if the beam was rectangular. This basic idea I got from Sumokun over at YouTube. Sumokun does some beautiful woodcraft with not a lot of space and no fancy tools. He says it comes from a Popular Woodworking design, based on an old French design. Thanks Sumokun.

I made some additional modifications: I wedged the scoring blade, rather than setting it into the end of the beam with a screw, and I set in a brass plate on the face, to keep the face from wearing. The wedged blade idea came from Steve Emmons, who says he learned how to make his gauge from a Fine Woodworking article. The rectangular mortise in the Emmons gauge is made by assembling the fence from four pieces, and leaving the mortise as a void space, clamped around the beam to insure a tight fit. If I make another one, I may try that, altho the round bottom (made with a 1/2-inch Forstner bit prior to squaring up the mortise) is a nice feature to leave out. I think a similar feature could be had with a beam--and mortise--that is wedge shaped on the bottom

The gauge broken down to its parts

The scoring blade is made from a jigsaw blade: I ground the teeth off, cut it to length and sharpened the end to a short knife point. You can see the detail of the wedge that holds the beam in place in this photo. The little hook on the end keeps it from falling out when loosening the gauge. In fact, its pretty easy to use the gauge one handed, which is pretty nice--and not possible with the thumb screw type.