Measure Twice, Cut Ounce: Marking and Measuring Tools

Marking and measuring is one of those really key skills that creators have to understand. I see fast creators, always on the move, moving quickly from one process to another, stopping, sitting down and thinking carefully, taking the right step before galloping off. They know that making a mistake here can affect all the work months later.

So I’m going to talk about gauge marking. In simpler terms, they are just a sharp nail protruding through a bar with a movable material that slides up and down the bar. Today we are offered complicated, shiny and expensive dial gauges that are really not what we need. First of all, we need quite a few gauges, they are tools that are often set and left until the work process is completed. So one or two gauges would not be enough, simple wood gauges are relatively cheap, but some of the newer engineered metal gauges are extremely expensive.

A dial gauge is a one-handed tool. This is a key misunderstanding that many toolmakers fail to understand. The work is held in the left hand, the tool in the right hand and the gauge is adjusted to the required dimension by lightly tapping the heel of the bar to give a greater clearance from the butt, the tip of the bar to give a smaller clearance . Once the tool is set to the correct distance, it can be tightened and set. Sophisticated micro-adjustments are an unnecessary headache.

You can choose between marking gauges and cutting gauges. I use the generic term marking gauge, but most of the gauges on my bench are, in fact, cutting gauges. Toolmakers would like you to buy complete sets of each of these, suggesting you use one to score down the grain and one to score across the grain. This is nonsense, you need gauges that leave a clean, crisp line in all circumstances. This may mean taking a small file and sharpening the pin of a marking gauge or sharpening the blade of a cutting gauge to get this sharpness and clarity of line.

Like a scoring knife, the pin or blade should be beveled on only one side; see my article on marking knives if you are unsure about this. The bevel should always face the debris side, so you may need some of your gauges with a bevel toward the butt and others with a bevel away from the butt. Those of you who know me know that I am all for the minimum number of tools on the bench, this is one case where you need some gauges.

Looking through my tool catalogs, I still see Joseph Marples wood gauges and would recommend them. For those who don’t like to gauge wood, Veritas Wheel Marking Gauges are a solution. The Tite Mark dial gauge is kind of an expensive complication that I advise you to stay away from. You could buy 10 gauges of wood for the price of this overdesigned toy.

At the higher end of the market I have a rosewood gauge with nice brass fittings made by Cullen. The benefit of this tool is that the beautiful sharp cutting blade can be easily rotated to suit the job, projected to stand out sharply, or set back. It’s a precision instrument and I think I could still buy two of these for a silly Tite Mark gauge but it’s still an expensive toy and if I was new to this there are other tools I’d buy first.