The Woodworker & Woodturner – August 2019

http://www.getwoodworking.com August 2019 The Woodworker & Good Woodworking 33

mortise, first setting the gauge to the chisel
(photo 12) that’ll be used to chip out the waste
(photo 13). For a deep mortise it can be awkward
to level the floor without bruising the carefully
cut edges, but there’s a special tool for that –
the swan-necked lock mortise chisel – which
levers from lower down the end wall and
cuts at a more effective angle (photo 14).
Perhaps the most satisfying of scribing tools
is the one I was looking for earlier – dividers.
The sturdy iron winged sort, with a locking thumb
screw, has the weight to pivot firmly on the spot
while carrying the line just by dragging its pointed
foot (photo 15). The tool is commonly used
for scribing apertures, or where an end is to

be rounded off, but if arcs are intersected you can

soon create more interesting designs (photo 16).

Where dividers go the coping saw often follows,

but they’re also used for laying out the curves

of carved patterns, and stepping off distances.

Trammel points, a conveniently adjustable

alternative to nails hammered through a batten,

are for scribing larger arcs (photo 17). I was

attracted to this chunky brass-bodied pair by the

engraved details as much as their functionality,

recording their owner in 1885 was one TEF

Swindale of Newcastle (photo 18). They lock

to the chamfered mahogany beam by screws

bearing on tiny loose plates called keepers;

it’s a miracle these haven’t been lost in the

last 134 years. Callipers, on the other hand, near

relatives of dividers, are essential to woodturners

who apply their legs bent this way or that to

the gauging of diameters, but they’re also useful

in the making of simple hollow ware with hand

tools. In the example shown in photo 19, the

bow-legged outside callipers indicate plenty

of wall thickness remaining in a pot gouged

from ash.

Rules of thumb

Some of the measurements which have come

down through history have been inspired by parts

of the human body, which are at least unlikely to

be mislaid, and that tradition is nicely preserved

15 Dividers scribe the arcs...

18 TEF Swindale, 1885, Newcastle

16 ... for the coping saw to follow

17 Trammel points scribe to larger radii