Originally Posted by
Jim Koepke
Seeing a knifed line can be difficult even for young eyes.
A carpenters pencil with the flat edge cut to a chisel point on fine sandpaper can follow a knifed line quite well. Makes it a lot easier to see and it stays accurate.
jtk
Originally Posted by
Derek Cohen
Jim, no matter how careful you are with a pencil, the line will inevitably be thicker than a knifed line. One can work to the edge of a line, but a knifed line can register a chisel or a knife edge when using a square to continue it.
I have long wanted to know more about how Japanese woodworkers use a sumitsubo. A centre line is marked (rather than using a reference side) and then they work from each side of the line. But this inked line has thickness. How does this work?
Regards from Perth
Derek
Derek, you may have misunderstood my comment on using a pencil in the knifed line. Here is an example:
Penciled Knife Lines.jpg
The lines were first made with a knife. The one on the right was made with the saw blade marking knife. The other two were made with the plane blade marking knife using different pressure for a light line in the middle and a heave line on the left. The pencil is not a carpenter's pencil, it is an artist pencil, if my memory is working it is likely a 2B (soft) lead. It was sharpened to a chisel point before marking the bottom half of the lines. Normally a carpenter's pencil is used, but this one was on the bench.
On dark wood, rubbing chalk into the line makes it stand out to be seen.
jtk
"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."
- Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965)