Cutting Gage Preference

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Any of the wheel type marking guages are good. I have a titemark. Reasons are cleaner cut and you make a nice clean mark to rest your chisel in or a good start of a kerf for your saw. Ask the guys on the hand tools side I'm sure you'll get some more info on Marking Gauges.

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Ernie Miller Topeka

>Jim wake up! where are you? This is the hand tool side. I like the roller type I have a LV but my favorite is a goodall pratt it has an octagon shape and dosent roll off the bench.

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Steve Kubien

>Dave,

I have a Veritas wheel-type gauge and I love it. Works very well and feels good to the hand. Having said that, I will be looking at a new mortise gauge soon and will go with a Japanese, double-knife version. I can't justify the $$$ for a Tite-Mark mortise gauge although the reports are that they are pretty sweet.

My opinion but avoid a needle-type gauge with what looks like a finishing nail or small brad as a cutter. They're are cheaper but you have to fettle them to make them useable.

Steve Kubien

Ajax, Ontario

remove the _9 to email

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

RJ Whelan

>David .... I have a Bridge City and two Tite Marks: I like the Tite Mark for it's fine adjustment ... rj

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Alan Hamilton

>David,

I assume you want a real cutting gauge and not just a marking gauge. So, with that distinction in mind:

I have both a wheel marking gauge and a cutting gauge with a knife. There's no comparison. The wheel marking gauge doesn't cut deep enough to be of any use whatever as a cutting gauge. With my knife cutting gauge I can cut at least 1/8" or so deep, and I think even deeper, without much effort. That's plenty deep enough to cut the edge of a dado so it doesn't splinter; or to cut out strips of veneer; or to do any other cutting gauge chore.

Alan

I like wheeles too...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>I have the Vertas. Gotta agree with Ernie about it rolling ( or chasing) around the bench.

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Alan Bierbaum

>Wheel type or a couple of homemade Japanese style deep cutting gages are what I use. You can cure the problem with the veritas rolling off your bench with a file or grinder (see attached picture),

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>I realized that after posting. It's hotter than hell here trying to get a new washroom finished it's the 27 stairs that are killing me.

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Darrell in Oakville

>My cutting gage is a knife type. I made it from a scrap of walnut firewood, a bolt and a bit of broken hacksaw blade. Later I replaced the bolt with a fancy knurled brass one, and added some brass strips on the wear surfaces. Why would anyone *buy* a marking or cutting gage? Or am I just too cheap to understand...?

Darrell

Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and Occasional Tool User

and frugal too ;^)

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Roy from Cincy

>I just got a Stanley #98 mortise gauge off the Bay. It has wheelies on one end and pins on the other. $16.00. I don't know if I like it or not. It hasn't gotten here yet. I liked the price, though.

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Dave Thompson

>I have a Crown, and two wheel gauges, the Veritas and the $10 shop fox clone of the Veritas.

My favorite is the Veritas. The shop fox clone looks good in the store, but I found it corrodes a little too easily. It also slides on the bar a little easier than I would like. It works for the money, but if were buying it again, I would prefer to spend the extra and just get two Veritas wheel gauges.

I use two wheel gauges for marking mortises... one for the inside line and the other for the outside line.

Regarding rolling around on the bench, I usually stick in a bench dog hole, or in the tool tray on the bench when temporarily setting it aside.

enjoy,

Dave

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Roy from Cincy

>Darrell, I like your style. You're a Neanderthal's Neanderthal. We knuckle-draggers who think we're sliding down the slippery slope look down ahead of us and see you skiing down to the abyss. As my Normite friends tell me, that way lies madness. Soon, you'll be chopping your neighbor's mailbox down and riving the post with a mallet and froe. Keep up the good work, by the way ;-).

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Charles Stanford

>Plain Beech cutting gauge from Crown, about ten bucks. Everything else is just an excuse to spend money instead of building projects.

These gauges worked just fine for some of the finest woodworkers the world will ever know. Lately, I've seen iterations of these gauges for over $100 and the nice wheel gauges run at least $50. This is utter absurdity.

What brand do you have

davidewhiting

>

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

paul womack

>If by cutting gauge, you merely mean something that will mark across the grain, both wheel and knife work fine.

If you actually want a significant CUT, e.g. marking the base of dovetails, you need a real knife.

As to brand, I simply used an old marking gauge (which are common), and altered it to carry a small blade, made from an engineering hacksaw blade.

At least around my way, cutting gauges are not common.

here's the story and a

follow up

Oh yeah; depending on the marking you're doing you need to turn the knife so the bevel faces the waste. Of course, the true hand tooler simply acquire 2 cutting gauges...

BugBear

Re: The simple knife  *LINK*

paul womack

>


http://www.axminster.co.uk/default.asp?part=JOS4

The choice depends ....

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

>I have two Crown pins and a Veritas wheel.

The pins cutter is better when marking mortices, that is, with the grain.

The wheel cutter is better for dovetails, that is, cutting across the grain.

What I don't like about the Crown pins is that they are difficult to sharpen to a knife profile. So I am going to modify one of my Crowns to accept a knife, which will cut better across the grain than a pin, and deeper than a wheel. Perhaps I will make my own...

Regards from Perth

Derek

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Paul M. in San Diego

>I'll have to make that flat on my Veritas guage. I've been putting down by dropping the stick into a dog-hole, but your flat idea would be more convenient.

Re: Cutting Gage Preference

Ernie Miller Topeka

>Bad thing is I had to go back and check twice to make sure that This was the hand tool side.

Re: What brand do you have

Alan Hamilton

>David,

Brand? I'm not sure; but I think my knife-equipped cutting gauge must be a Crown. At least it looks like something made by Crown: it's rosewood--or a close facsimile--with lots of brass here and there. But with such tools I don't think there's much that really matters.

Alan

Bad Experiences with Crowns

Don Thompson, Cutler Ridge, Florida

>I have a Crown beech-and-plastic, pin-type marking gauge. The fit of the head on the bar is such that it wiggles laterally. They cut the clearance on the wrong side of the openning - tightening the plastic thumbscrew does not help.

I have a Crown rosewood and brass cutting gauge. The little brass wedge for the knife is incredibly crude, and the mortise for it is very roughly made. Worse, on close examination, the hole was chopped so that the SIDE of the wedge bears against the knife. What can they have been thinking?

I do have a Crown mortise gauge that works ok. As suggested by Sir William, it really could use some work with a rasp to make it more ergonomically suitable for the human hand. I think that this is my second one - I believe that returned the first one because of a fit issue with one of the brass parts. (a few years ago, CRS striking here)

My wife bought me the complete set of Tite-Marks for Christmas, but I have not used them enough to give a meaningful report. They certainly do seem to be of the highest quality of machining, fit and finish.