Marking gauge improvement

[Rob Luter]

Rob, I never drop a chisel into a knife line. It is a recipe to push the line back. What I do is pare a chisel wall. It can be very shallow - that would be enough to register the chisel in the line but prevent it from moving backwards over the line.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Understood. All my recent dovetailing practice has clearly illustrated the fragility of the baseline, especially if trying to remove too much waste at once. My point was that on certain wood, the crisp but shallow line from the wheel gauge doesn't offer much in the way of registration, Whether it be for supplementing with a marking knife or for establishing a chisel wall/knife wall.

[Phil Mueller]

Nicely done, Rob. If you get a chance, I’d like to see the clamp knob/wooden pellet. Can’t quite picture how that was done.
Thanks!

[Jeff Ranck]

Nicely done! I have a few wheel gauges from Lee Valley. I do like them, but I reach for my Japanese marking gauge more often than not. So I tend to like slicing gauges better and it looks like you have a winner!

[Mark Rainey]

Rob, that is one nice hand tool!

[Stephen Rosenthal]

Stephen, this is interesting. Perhaps you can comment, or try a little experiment ...

My explanation: The TM wheel is thin, and it is terrific across the grain. It can more easily be diverted when cutting with the grain. The thicker Hamilton knife will better resist this when cutting with the grain.

Try this (if you do not do this already - my apology if I am telling you how to suck eggs): light strokes with the TM when marking with the grain. The first 2 or 3 strokes should be feather light. Just enough to score the top fibres. Then increase the downforce slightly. And progressively. You should not have a problem with the grain now.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Hi Derek,

Never a problem getting advice from others (especially you), even if I already know it. Anyway, your suggestion of starting light and progressively increasing the downward force with multiple passes does improve the ability to score the line with the grain, but I find it also increases the chances of messing it up as a result of the additional passes. That said, it’s likely a matter of my technique with a wheel gauge. I’ve never quite gotten the hang of scoring long lines with the grain with it. That’s why I purchased the 6” Hamilton (not their traditional marking gauge). Unlike a wheel gauge it is perfectly balanced and has that long flat fence. This allows me to place consistent downward pressure without shifting my hand throughout the cut. The Tite-Mark (or any wheel gauge), with its limited point of contact with the edge, tends to tip or wander. Again, probably a matter of my technique, but as my dad always told me, there’s nothing like the right tool to make the work easier.

[Rob Luter]

It's raining today, so I spent a couple hours in the shop cleaning up the aftermath from the last project and creating another debris pile from the new one. I thought I might follow up and show the kind of results I get with my marking gauges.

I use the three gauges below for marking. From left to right is my homebrew, an old Stanley #62 with a pin scribed to a spear point, and a Tite-Mark

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I scribed lines cross grain on a piece of 8/4 QSWO I use as a backer for chopping dovetails. I used the same pressure on each. They follow the same left to right order as the gauge photo. As you can hopefully see, the Tite-Mark left a razor thin line that is very crisp. The #62 left a nice V shaped line that was a bit deeper than the Tite-Mark and less crisp. The home brew left the deepest line, and due to the shape of the cutting blade it's a nearly vertical cut on the left side due to the grind on the cutter. It's set up like a marking knife. It cuts deep enough that I can use a chisel or knife to create a knife wall, and do so confident in the fact that I won't likely screw it up. When I try that with the line from the Tite-Mark, I do not have the same confidence due to the shallow cut. Note this is only on oak and similar hard timber. Finer grained wood like Alder or Cherry mark just fine with the Tite-MArk.

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[Jim Matthews]

In White Oak I follow the knife line with chalk.

DC favors Blue Tape for the purpose.
Chalk doesn't peel off in my dank shop.