Woodworking Magazine Blog

I've been purging my shop and tool chests of excess tools this week. But now I'm afraid some of my tools are "taking the hint" and leaving on their own.

This morning I set out to dovetail a walnut carcase and found that one of my beloved dividers – an old Brown & Sharpe – was AWOL. So I had to use some bigger, clunkier dividers in tandem with my Starrett (shown above) to lay things out.

David Brookshaw has been making amazing tools since 1988 -- many of them miniatures that have appeared in some of the gorgeous tool books from Sandor Nagyszalanczy, including the cover of "Tools: Rare and Ingenious."

This November, Brookshaw is coming to Philadelphia for the Philadelphia Miniaturia show Nov. 6-7, where he'll be showing his miniature tool chest and workshop that we featured on the blog earlier (read about it here and here).

Lately Brookshaw has been making some pieces from the incredible Nessi collection of tools, including the ones below. These were featured in this book, which I bought in 2004 for $80. Ouch. But the essays and photos are well worth it for the ardent tool nutjob.

Brookshaw makes his pieces for sale. The dividers above, which are from the French book "Le Livre de l'outil." They were a commission that cost $3,000. So now I am reconsidering my decision to skip law school.

Check out the dividers below from the Nessi collection, and stop by the show in Philadelphia if you want to see more. You can contact Brookshaw through his web site.

— Christopher Schwarz

Other Tool Makers and Books You Should Investigate

• "Classic Hand Tools" by Garrett Hack

• "The Art of Fine Tools" by Sandor Nagyszalanczy

• Heinz Tools: heinztools.com, where I got my squirrel hammer!

• Gerd Fritsche's Traditional Handplanes: traditional-handplanes.com

I'm packing up all the tools I'll need in North Carolina for the coming week, and I was a bit shocked this morning as I went through my checklist.

One of the "Woodwright's Shop" television programs Roy Underhill and I are shooting this weekend will deal with the typical toolkit of a joiner circa 1839. I compiled my list based on an old book, "The Joiner & Cabinet Maker," which detailed the fictional life of a young apprentice.

Some days I forget that not all woodworking tools are designed by woodworkers (see: many of the honing guides on the market).

And I forget that some tools are just designed to trick your family members into buying them for you at Christmas (see also: the battery-operated tape measure and C-clamp).

This weekend as I was cleaning up the shop a bit, I started thinking about many of the odd, unnecessary or downright counterproductive features on tools and machinery. Here's my short list.

Expanded and detailed plans for the Roubo Try Square from the February 2010 issue are now for sale as a download in our store.

The plans include the original two-page article published in the February 2010 issue of Popular Woodworking, plus another six pages of detailed step-by-step instructions on the construction and truing process. There's also a page of the three critical full-size details (the moulding shapes on the ends and the profile of the stock). And a detailed SketchUp file. The price is $4.99.

If you have the February issue and are an intermediate woodworker, you have everything you need to build the try square, which I scaled directly off Andre Roubo's plates with the assistance of a translation of the 18th-century text.

However, every time we publish a project, our customers ask if there are plans with more details available for purchase. We decided to use this project as an experiment. So I took an extra two days to completely flesh out the construction and truing process in minute detail. Art Director Linda Watts took a day to design the package like a story in the magazine.

To read more about the plans, visit our store.

— Christopher Schwarz

The longer I'm a woodworker, the less I like systems of measurement. Whether you're a machinist who works in metric, an imperious advocate of imperial, or a Bob who measures in "bobs," there is one thing that is true about all these systems: They invite error.

When you add, subtract, multiply or divide these measurements, you are doomed to make a mistake. We transpose numbers. We "burn an inch" when we use a tape measure by reading on the wrong side of the line. And we simply back ourselves into a difficult corner when we need to divide the face of a board into five equal spaces with 1/8" between each space.

Several readers have encouraged me to take a look at the OXO 16" folding ruler, which is an inexpensive aluminum recreation of the classic 19th-century folding ruler.

I picked one up at Staples for $6.99 and have been fiddling with it to determine if it's the second coming or just a second-string tool for the shop.

From the "I need three hands" file: Sometimes when you scribe a line on a board with the guidance of a try square you need one hand to hold the knife, one hand to press the blade down against the work and a third hand to hold the square's handle up and against the edge of the board.

Marking gauges have all manner of ways for you to lock the head to the beam, but most involve a screw or wedge mechanism. I think the coolest method I've ever seen is a cam-lock on the vintage Star Tools gauge.

The head locks on the beam by twisting the head (or beam). It locks quite well, and without things shifting around like on some cheap gauges. Both the beam and the head look to my eye to have a fairly complex shape to create this interlock.

Boy was I wrong.

Ever since I saw George Walker's DVD on furniture design and his lecture at Woodworking in America, I've been trying out some of his ideas on pieces of furniture that I know and love. With a pair of dividers (and sometimes a beer) I've been walking around the drawings and thinking about shapes, proportions and punctuation.

Though I need another sliding bevel like I need a goat in my living room, I recently ordered one of the new sliding bevels from Chris Vesper Tools in Australia and have been putting it through its paces.

I reviewed Vesper's sliding bevels in the April 2009 issue of Popular Woodworking. I also wrote about Vesper for the Fine Tool Journal – you can read the article for free here.

I finished up building a set of try squares based on Andre Roubo's 18th-century plans this weekend and need to put the finish on them. What's holding me back? Well, I keep using the squares and getting pencil marks on the blades, which need to be removed before I can finish them.

Inspired by Robert W. Lang's article on making wooden try squares in the Autumn 2009 issue, I decided to make a batch of squares this weekend.

Yesterday at lunch I bought some quartersawn European steamed beech that was on sale at the local lumberyard. The clerk at the yard described it as "rustic," which must be a local Ohio term meaning "crap." I found one 12' board in the whole stack that had enough straight material suitable for making layout tools.

 “The machines need the numbers. We don’t need the numbers.”
 — Jim Tolpin

After attending almost two days of lectures at our Woodworking in America conference, my head is swimming with both big ideas about the craft and the fine details of joinery.

Each of the lectures I’ve attended reminds me of a snake eating a pig. I have taken in a huge amount of information, but it is going to take me weeks or months to digest it. I hope that we’ll be able to do this construction and design conference again in a future year because this is one of the coolest things I’ve ever attended.

I got to spend a little time in the Marketplace area of the Woodworking in America conference this morning and got a first look at some new hand tools that will be available soon.

First stop was with Dave Jeske at Blue Spruce Toolworks. Dave has a new line of try squares coming out this fall (they will be ready in time for our Woodworking in America Hand Tools show in Valley Forge, Pa.).

In the history of measuring equipment, there is one blunder so awful that it makes me twitter (old-school twitter) like a smack-addled squirrel every time I encounter it.

It's a 6" steel rule that I acquired in 1997. The numbers are engraved and filled in. The markings are nice and fine. And there are four scales: eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds and sixty-fourths.

What's not to like?

There is precious little information out there about placing your hardware so it doesn’t look awkward. My theory: Woodworking writers get so worn out by the time that they reach the end of a story that all they do is write: Apply three coats of your favorite finish, attach the hardware and enjoy!

Oh, if only life were that simple. It’s no wonder I see so many projects with terrible finishes and hardware that looks like it was stuck on by drunk chipmunk.

I'm a child of the Cold War. I remember the drills in elementary school where we curled up under our desks in the event of a nuclear attack (to kiss our butts goodbye I suppose).

One of my closest friends, Bill Tofflemeier, was obsessed with the Soviet Union and spent a lot of his earnings in junior high purchasing smuggled goods from the U.S.S.R. His room was covered in enormous propaganda posters featuring heroic drawings of Lenin.

My grandfather's workbench had an adhesive rule stuck to its front edge, which was extremely useful when woodworking. You could check part dimensions without pulling out a tape measure or steel rule.

The only problem was that it was fixed to that one spot.

Now a Georgia entrepreneur has made a cool product that allows you to put a rule almost anywhere, then remove it without hurting the surface below. Called "Red Tape," it is exactly as its name implies. It's a 55'-long roll of clear adhesive tape with a continuous ruler printed on it in red.

If you want to sell something to a woodworker, the easy way is to start by selling him on the idea that he can’t possibly do it himself. If you can accomplish that, then you have someone ready and willing to buy yet another jig to make joinery simple or publication that reveals the secrets to cutting dovetails. In truth, there isn’t much to woodworking beyond cutting stuff to a line and cleaning up surfaces you’ve cut. When I tell myself “I can’t possibly do that” a warning signal goes off, and I look for the reason why.

When I attended the 20th anniversary of Lie-Nielsen Toolworks, John Economaki of Bridge City Tools was at the next table. When Thomas Lie-Nielsen called out Bridge City as one of the other pioneering modern toolmakers, Economaki interrupted the speech.

"Bridge City!" Economaki cried out. "Going out of business for 25 years now!"

The crowd roared. What made it particularly funny for me was how true that comment is for so many small toolmaking companies. There is a perception among a lot of woodworkers that Economaki, Lie-Nielsen, Mike Wenzloff, Wayne Anderson, Konrad Sauer and even Karl Holtey must be very rich men.

When I first learned about the so-called Golden Mean or Golden Section I was enthralled by the concept. I actually remember the moment. I was in the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., in 1996 and just discovering that some of the geometry I learned in junior high actually had a use.

With every project there is always some tool that deserves an Academy Award-style acceptance speech.

“In building this chest of drawers I’d like to thank my mom for birthing me, Hanes for making the underwear that needed storing and my shoulder plane for fitting all the tenons in the web frames.”

Really, I have enough clamps – a couple dozen – to do just about anything.

If I can't clamp it, I can always use pinch dogs, drawboring or some other dodge to get the job done.

But I don't think I have enough marking gauges. I always have at least three or four set up for a project at any given time. This week I have four unfinished projects on my bench, and I'm running out of gauges.

If you're a regular here, you know that I like the Tite-Mark cutting gauge. It is a marvel of micro-adjustable engineering. Today, let me introduce you to my other favorite gauge: The Les Outils Cullen slitting gauge (it's also a cutting gauge).

This gauge is made from Dymondwood, brass and steel. Dymondwood is a high-end plywood-like product that looks like an exotic wood and is durable and stable. The fit and finish of the Les Outils Cullen is superb. It's one of those tools where they make all the screw heads line up (somewhere, there's an engineer who is tingly all over right now).

Two features of this gauge make it stand out: The knife itself and the mechanism that locks the head to the beam. What I like about the knife is that you can easily reverse it in the beam. That means you can go to marking the baselines for your dovetails to slitting thin pieces of stock with just a simple turn of a thumbscrew. The knife comes quite sharp, is the proper shape and can score deeply if you ask it to, such as when defining the field of a raised panel.

The locking mechanism is the other standout. The bottom part of the beam is radiused and it drops into a matching cove in the head. A large thumbscrew locks everything in place. It is very solid all-in-all – I cannot detect any of the wiggling shimmy that plagues cheap gauges.

Les Outils Cullen Tools in Quebec makes a number of gauges that range in price from $39.95 to $79.95. The slitting gauge is $54.95 from TheBestThings.com. Highly recommended.

— Christopher Schwarz

In the shop, my mechanical pencil is as important as my eyeglasses. I use a mechanical pencil with a 0.5mm lead to darken in my knife lines when cutting dovetails, tenons or other joinery.

I like the really thin lead because I can usually drop it into a knife line and – with just light pressure – the lead will mark only the right and left sides of the knife line. That makes it easier to split my pencil line when sawing.

I know you are beginning to think I have an engineering background. Really, I’m not all that fussy.

While I like my mechanical pencils, I’ve always hated three things about them: the pencil mechanism itself, the lead and the eraser. Oh, and the pocket clip is flimsy, too.

I generally buy the Pentel pencils, which are the top of the line here in Kentucky. Their mechanisms tend to jam; I get about six months out of a pencil. The eraser is as effective as a gummy bear. The lead breaks too easily.

But heck, that’s what you get, right?

Today I was at Staples looking to replace my latest ex-Pentels when I noticed something I’d never seen before: “Super Hi-Polymer Lead,” which is supposed to be 25 percent stronger. (Stronger than what? Stinky cheese?)

I picked up a pack of the stuff with my new soon-to-be-dead pencils and used it to mark half-blind dovetails all afternoon. You know what? It really is stronger than the regular lead. I didn’t snap a single lead through six sets of dovetails. That is a record.

So if you’re a mechanical pencil dweeb like me, check out the Hi-Polymer stuff next time you need a refill. Hey, now I only hate two things about my mechanical pencils.

— Christopher Schwarz

I feel like a dirty English tool dealer this morning. But I’m OK with that.

Recently I purchased a bunch of brass-bound folding rules to give to co-workers and friends. Most of these were Stanley No. 62s, a common rule that I really like. If you want to know my favorite one, however, you’ll have to come to Cincinnati in May and fish it out of my tool cabinet.

In any case, the last folding rule I had left to give away was definitely an Alberto Fujimori (a former ruler). The scales on the outside were too dark to read. The scales on the inside of the rule were OK. The rule had cost only $1.76, so I wasn’t feeling overly shafted.

This folding rule was special because it had been used hard. The brass corners were worn from frequent use. One of the scales was charred a bit (that must have an interesting tale behind it). But despite the bad scales, its joints worked well and the rule had two of its three alignment pins intact – so it hadn’t been mistreated. Most folding rules are missing these pins, which keep all the components locked together when the rule is folded.

So I decided to try to restore this rule and see if I could turn it back into a nice piece of workshop equipment. British tool dealers have a bad reputation of taking beautifully patinated tools and wire brushing them into pupil-piercing brilliantness. I didn’t want to do that. So I started with a mild cleaning with mineral spirits and a toothbrush.

That did absolutely nothing.

So I consulted Philip E. Stanley’s book on folding rules ("A Source Book for Rule Collectors" – love the book, by the by). He recommends using Boraxo, a hand cleaner with lanolin. You can get it at home centers. It’s a bit gritty, smells like oranges and removes grease from your hands.

Here's the ruler after I treated one scale with Boraxo (at top). The other scale is untreated.

I cleaned one arm of the folding rule with the stuff last night and things began looking up. The paper towel got a brown skid-mark and the ruler got easier to read. However, Easter morning I woke up and (after making French toast and helping the kids find their eggs) I decided to do a little ruler resurrection. I was going to potentially throw my $1.76 down the metaphorical toilet.

I mixed up some wood bleach (oxalic acid). I like a solution of three tablespoons of powdered bleach with 16 ounces of hot water in a glass salsa jar. I use this bleach solution for removing iron stains when I steam-bend wood and then nail it (like when I make Shaker oval boxes).

Here's the ruler after I treated one scale with oxalic acid (at left). The right scale is untreated.

With rubber gloves on, I applied the bleach with a woven gray pad. Within a minute, the boxwood lightened considerably. But the ink on the rule stayed intact. Whew. I rinsed the rule in running water, allowed it to dry and applied two coats of wax.

Sorry tool collectors. You’re going to have to wait for another 50 years of patina before you can have this one. It’s going back to work.

— Christopher Schwarz

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My grandfather’s folding rule reads from right to left, while my tape measure reads from left to right. I never thought much about it, though I always did like using my folding rule when measuring the distance between the table saw’s rip fence and the blade because of this characteristic.

Then last week a reader pointed out that a new folding ruler from Holland reads from left to right – like a modern tape measure. Argh. It was a mystery that only a tool collector could unravel.

So I picked up a copy of “A Sourcebook for Rule Collectors” (Astragal Press) by Philip E. Stanley. What a delightful geek-fest. I have been consuming the thing all evening. (I even got a little chicken piccata on the cover, which explains its lemony-fresh smell.)

If you are even mildly interested in the history of measurement, this 286-page book will delight you. Not only does the book cover the different kinds of rules (carriagemaker’s rules, gear rules, glazier’s rules), it also discusses in detail how they were made. (It’s a very involved process.) And there are interesting articles on the origin of historical measurement systems, including the European units of length before the metric system.

But does the book have the answer to the question? An article by Kenneth D. Roberts in the book has this to say:

“A peculiar difference between American and English folding rules is that the former read from right to left; whereas the latter read from left to right. No known authoritative explanation has yet to be found to account for this difference. It is suggested that it was simply a matter of custom, similar to driving on different sides of the road.”

Another writer in the book notes that some English rules read from right to left.

So really, this is one for Leonard Nimoy to figure out.

— Christopher Schwarz

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Last week Roy Underhill took me to the back room of his new school in Pittsboro, N.C.

"Is this the office?" I asked.

"No," Roy said with a wicked grin. "This is where I keep the confiscated tape measures."

It might surprise some modern-day woodworkers that the spring-loaded tape measure wasn't always the tool of choice for laying out one's work. Instead, the preferred layout tool for woodworkers for many generations was the folding rule: a brass-bound boxwood device that would unfold to 24" – though other lengths were available.

And that's why Underhill bans tape measures from The Woodwright's School.

The invention of the modern tape measure is sometimes credited to Alvin J. Fellows of New Haven, Conn., who patented his device in 1868, though the patent states that several kinds of tape measures already existed on the market at that time.

Tape measures didn't become ubiquitous, however, until the 1930s or so. The tool production of Stanley Works points this out nicely. The company had made folding rules almost since its inception. The company's production of tape measures appears to have cranked up in the late 1920s, according to John Walter's book "Stanley Tools."

In our shop here at the magazine, there have always been people in both camps. Senior Editor David Thiel always preferred zig-zag folding rules. Publisher Steve Shanesy uses tape measures. Senior Editor Glen Huey prefers a 24" ruler (non folding) for many layout chores. I've always used a 12' tape and a couple combination squares.

But lately I've found myself holding my folding rule quite a bit. It's a common-as-dirt Stanley No. 66-1/4 that belonged to my grandfather, I believe. Someone in my family has thoughtfully coated the entire thing in a thick film of glossy polyurethane, which makes the device an eyesore.

Plus two of the rule's three joints were looser than I like – they flopped around like when my youngest sister broke her arm. But I fixed the ruler's problem. Perhaps this solution will get me crucified, but it worked great. I put the rule on the shop's concrete floor and tapped the pin in the ruler's hinges using a nail set and a hammer. About six taps peened the steel pin a bit, spreading it out to tighten up the hinge. Now the rule works like a new one.

I like using the folding rule so much because it's great for taking inside measurements on casework. It's stiff, so I don't have to worry about it sagging across a long distance. It's marked in 8ths on one side and 16ths on the other. That's great for most work – sometimes the 32nds and 64ths on machinist-style rules can make a measurement hard to read. And, of course, it won't put me in the "time out room" at Mr. Underhill's.

If you ever want to try using a folding rule and have difficulty finding a vintage one, you might consider the one from Garrett Wade with the delightful politically incorrect name: Blindman's Rule. It's $22.40 (sometimes it goes on sale), is made in Holland by Sybren and is easy to read.

— Christopher Schwarz


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I've had a vintage panel gauge for many years, and I've hated every minute of our relationship.

The beam flops around in the head, no matter how Conan you go on the thumbscrew. And so the gauge's pin tends to move around as you make your marks. While this defect doesn't hurt the accuracy of your line to a fault, it's as annoying as using a workbench that wobbles a bit.

A few weeks ago I bought one of the new panel gauges from Lie-Nielsen for $85 and have been on a few dates with it in the shop. So far, I'm quite impressed.

The locking mechanism is totally solid. The thumb screw pushes down on one corner of the 18"-long beam, forcing it into a triangular trough in the head. Thomas Lie-Nielsen got the inspiration for this from David Charlesworth's modified marking gauges (covered in his landmark "Furniture-Making Techniques Vol. I." on page 13). And then Lie-Nielsen made some further refinements.

Instead of a pin, the panel gauge uses a V-shaped knife, which slices cleanly. And it doesn't seem to follow the grain much, which is sometimes a concern when marking with the grain with a knife.

Also, you can turn the beam around and use the panel gauge as a pencil gauge. This is a sweet function that I added to several of my own marking gauges. To insert a pencil in the beam you simply loosen a screw, drop a pencil in the provided hole and tighten the screw. I prefer a pencil gauge when rough-sizing boards because it's so much easier to see than a scratch line.

As with everything from Lie-Nielsen, the fit and finish is great. And the details make the tool a pleasure to use, including the brass wear plate on the fence of the head, and the medallion inset into the head.

And my old panel gauge? I think I'm going to nail the head to the beam and let my youngest daughter use it like a sword.

— Christopher Schwarz

Looking for More Woodworking Information?
• Sign up for our newsletters to get free plans, techniques and reviews HERE.
• Looking for free articles from Woodworking Magazine? Click HERE.
• Like hand tools? Read all our online articles on hand work HERE.
• Want to subscribe to Woodworking Magazine? It's $19.96/year. Click HERE.