Australian Wood Review – September 2019

64 Australian Wood Review

TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

Marking gauge

A simple tool for scribing a line parallel with the edge of a workpiece,

the marking gauge can be used with a pushing or pulling motion.

This oval stem example, made of rosewood with a boxwood captive

wedge, is likely user made a good number of decades ago.

Add another pin on a slide and you have a double marking or mortise

gauge, then triples, gauges for ovals and circles and so on. They

get quite ornate; ebony and brass anyone? Stanley made quite

a number, from the simple No.0 Marking Gauge in beech with a

boxwood screw, to the No.90 Williams Patent Combination Gauge,

a rosewood, steel and brass combined mortise, marking and cutting

gauge with four steel tips. For elegance, I favour such a simple model

such as shown, often one of the first tools a joiner’s apprentice

makes for themselves, along with a bench hook and mallet.

Saw handle

The Disston handsaw is found in different types in many

sheds and woodshops, its elegance apparent with a

look and confirmed with a grip and action.

This 8” 14tpi No.5 brass backed backsaw has the

13/16” ‘Disston Phila.’ medallion which dates it to the

early C20th. The deep V in the hand hole rather than

the later subtle dip (just below mid-point, in front of the

fingers) dates it prior to the c.1918 shape change. The

apple was changed to beech in the 1930s and the brass

backs (popular in the UK and Australia) disappeared in

the domestic material shortages of WW2.

The feel of the apple and the graceful shape of the handle

embody hand saw elegance. Just pick it up and your

fingers fall into comfortable place. Fingers curl through

the handhole, the top tip points back between the thumb

and forefinger and the latter settles comfortably on the

top step. A delight to be have and behold.

Turn s c r ews

Made to turn screws fixing wood to wood or steel

hardware, the turnscrew (latterly screwdriver) has a

functional elegance in its nomenclature alone. These

four are wooden handled flat and round cabinetmakers

turnscrews, perhaps dating to the late C19th, early

C20th, before alternatives to slot screws appeared.

The tools themselves, with one or two turned lines

for decoration, have a simple elegance; so too does

the slot screw. For many purposes, a Phillips head

screw (invented early 1930s) just looks wrong whereas

a snug, well-fitting slot screw is perfect. When the

driver’s tip fills the screw slot and engages the screw

and drives it home a feeling of tasteful correctness is

achieved. Woodworkers fall into two camps for the

final turn of the screw: those who ‘clock’ their screws

(align the slot with the grain) and those who do not,

just allowing the slot to align wherever it sits at its most

firm final point.