Roy Lindberry
09-14-2010, 10:14 PM
Well, this started out as a marking gauge, but it wasn't working very well so I scrapped it. I think you can see the hole in one end of the body where the blade was. The basic design is an eccentric body with a matching hole on the fence so that a simple twist will lock/unlock the fence.
So when I started thinking about a scratch stock this seemed like the perfect tool, so I dug it out. I sliced a kerf about two thirds of the length of the body, and made a second fence (this one out of scrap mahogany - the first was out of Brazilian walnut). The fences act not only as a guide, but they also provide a clamping action to hold the blade in place. The somewhat round body allows for easily changing the angle of attack.
After a couple of minutes shaping up a blade, I gave it a run, and got a very nice triple bead. It's not perfect, but this was my first attempt with a scratch stock, so I'm sure it will get better. It'll probably help to spend a little more time on the blade as well - I can already see some modifications that I want to make to it. But the stock design itself seems to work very well.
It's not the Lie-Nielsen - but for the price, it'll do just fine. Comments or suggestions?
So when I started thinking about a scratch stock this seemed like the perfect tool, so I dug it out. I sliced a kerf about two thirds of the length of the body, and made a second fence (this one out of scrap mahogany - the first was out of Brazilian walnut). The fences act not only as a guide, but they also provide a clamping action to hold the blade in place. The somewhat round body allows for easily changing the angle of attack.
After a couple of minutes shaping up a blade, I gave it a run, and got a very nice triple bead. It's not perfect, but this was my first attempt with a scratch stock, so I'm sure it will get better. It'll probably help to spend a little more time on the blade as well - I can already see some modifications that I want to make to it. But the stock design itself seems to work very well.
It's not the Lie-Nielsen - but for the price, it'll do just fine. Comments or suggestions?