Glen Drake Kerf Starter - anyone have experience or opinion?

[Bill Fleming]

Anyone have experience with the Glen Drake Kerf Starter?

Here is link to info.: http://www.glen-drake.com/v-web/ecommerce/os/catalog/index.php?cPath=27&osCsid=69b6086f432ba4cb3d9a49eb4bd07d22

Thx

[Steve Friedman]

Not yet, but mine arrived! I hope to have something to report by Sunday night! I planned to use it for more than just dovetails. I am hoping to use it to make the Tite-Marks marking gauge lines easier to see.

Steve

[John Powers]

Threw mine in the creek behind the house. Take one if they're giving them away. Another glen drake thing where form obscures lack of function. Use a knife.

[Jack Curtis]

Can't imagine why I'd ever want to add another tool to the sawing process. Sure looks like a solution without a problem, but maybe someone will come up with a unique approach.

Jack

[Zach Dillinger]

Don't see the point myself, but if it helps somebody saw better, more power to them.

[Jim Neeley]

I don't have a kerf starter but I really like their Tite-Mark gauges, whether for marking length of a dovetail or marking board thickness from the reference surface or distance from the edge (for boards too narrow for a cabinet gauge). For cutting a line parallel to a straight and square surface, I haven't seen better.

Precise, clean marks.

YMMV.

Jim

[John Coloccia]

FWIW, if I'm really concerned about getting a cut perfect, I make a small vertical cut with a chisel right on the line, and then I take away a little wedge on the waste side. The saw will guide itself right in.

[Jim Matthews]

Perhaps I'm missing something, as I cut softer woods (cherry, mostly).

I score with a carving knife that I've had for years, and it's not terribly sharp.
The wheel from my marking gauge is sufficient for starting crosscuts.

I leave the line, and pare with a chisel to the final fit.

I would prefer to spend this money on a chisel - as there are more ways to use a decent chisel in my furniture building.

[James Baker SD]

I have one but do not use it often. I mark with a knife, but ideally I want to cut a little to the waste side of my mark. The kerf starter seems to enlarge the mark and I take too much from the "good" wood (pin or tail) and the fit is loose. I have been unable to get the kerf starter cut toward the waste side. Easier for me to get the saw to cut a little off my mark.

James

[Craig Coney]

I have one, and I would recommend watching Kevin's video or seeing him demonstrate it in person to truly understand how to use it. He has been at the Lie-Nielson Handtool events near me. I think it is a good concept, and a different approach to laying out and marking your joints. It is a different thought process behind the technique, and once you follow the process, the system does work.

[James Baker SD]

Craig, I just watched the only video I found with google and it did not help much, seemed more a demo of his saw. Do you use the kerf starter to mark instead of a knife? I never tried that, but it might help.

James

[Eric Brown]

I have the Glen Drake "system". Feeler gages and all. It basically works like this:
Cut your pins or tails. Lay the joint together just like you would normally.
Now shift the board over the width of your saw blade plus the clearance you want (in thousanths).
Mark with kerf starter same width as your saw kerf. (Three sizes available.)
Only on one side of each joint where you want the waste.
Now shift the board the other direction the same amount. Mark the other side.
Now when you put your saw into the kerf you will have the clearance you want without having to find a tiny scribe line.
It's fast and it works.
It will not correct your ability to follow a line.
His saws also have a special feature in that the beginning of the sawplate has no teeth.
This drops into the kerf starter groove. The saw then has teeth that start fine and then get coarser.
Make starting and finishing easier.

When I give up woodworking it will be one of the last things I give up.
Still, just one opinion.
Take it for what it's worth.
Eric

[Jim Belair]

FWIW, if I'm really concerned about getting a cut perfect, I make a small vertical cut with a chisel right on the line, and then I take away a little wedge on the waste side. The saw will guide itself right in.

+1 .

[Craig Coney]

James,
Yes you use the kerf starter to strike the line, no marking knife. You also need to draw a burr at the tip of the blade like a scraper, it will make clean lines.

You use the marking gauge to set your joint depth, then use a square to align the kerf starter, pulling up from the marking gauge scribe to the end of the board. You can then use the back of the kerf starter in the scribe & align the top, strike the edge, and follow if you need to on the other face of the board.

Overall the idea is to mark a kerf line you will cut to and not have to pare down with chisels, or do much clean up.

You also want to ensure the kerf starter is the same thickness as your saw kerf.

[Zach Dillinger]

Seems like a lot of trouble to avoid learning how to saw to a line, which also means you don't have to pare with chisels if done properly.

[Ed Looney]

Seems like a lot of trouble to avoid learning how to saw to a line, which also means you don't have to pare with chisels if done properly. :rolleyes:


+1

[Jim Koepke]

I have seen it at tool events and it is a system that works.

I thought of making my own, but haven't bothered.

It is just another way to get a job done. For me, learning to get a saw to start has made the "high tech" solutions unneeded.

jtk

[James Taglienti]

At this point you might as well spend a few more bucks and just buy a leigh jig
will we soon be so swamped with jigs, fixtures, and saw guides that the whole point of hand tool woodworking will be missed?