Rediscovering the Fish-Head Marking Gauge // Make your own woodworking tools!
Rediscovering the Fish-Head Marking Gauge // Make your own woodworking tools!
This nearly forgotten layout tool is a powerful addition to your hand tool shop.
More video and exclusive content: http://www.patreon.com/rexkrueger
Get the Plans!: https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/plans-fish-head-marking-gauge
Get the Specialty Plane Bundle!:
https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/specialty-plane-bundle
Videos for each project: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR_8ISkKkV7lJPR4Q22UaQDruZpc4gxRO
Get the Journeyman’s Plan Bundle!:
https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/journeymans-plan-bundle-six-projects-for-your-hand-tool-shop
Videos for each project: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR_8ISkKkV7m8nvMOpXXy8zE9XsZgEr4i
———————————————————————-
Tools and Techniques from this Video:
Learn to cut mortises:
Video: https://youtu.be/oa0x1kAroHw
Make a Turning Saw from scrap wood
Video: https://youtu.be/8Agk6tJtRs0
Plans: https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/diy-turning-saw
Learn ways to hold your work
Video: https://youtu.be/kzv27STMnvY
Build the English Joiner’s Bench
Video: https://youtu.be/zcq1LQq08lk
Plans: https://bit.ly/2QZls9T
Make your own Spoke Shave
Video: https://youtu.be/IPYvwAmoHos
Plans: https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/make-a-wooden-spokeshave
Make a Traditional English Marking Gauge
Video: https://youtu.be/tm7AFpc02gA
Plans: https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/plans-one-handed-marking-gauge
Get the Spoke Shave and 4 other tools as part of the Specialty Plane Bundle!:
https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/specialty-plane-bundle
Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR_8ISkKkV7lJPR4Q22UaQDruZpc4gxRO
Get the Turning Saw and 4 other projects as part of the Journeyman’s Plan Bundle!:
https://www.rexkrueger.com/store/journeymans-plan-bundle-six-projects-for-your-hand-tool-shop
Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLR_8ISkKkV7m8nvMOpXXy8zE9XsZgEr4i
———————————————————————-
Quercus Magazine: https://quercusmagazine.com/
Buy individual issues: https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/AQ-1231.XX/Quercus+Magazine
———————————————————————-
Brad’s Woodturning (He’s a Patron!): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU4BGAcQQXq3z5Gb45fc3JA
———————————————————————-
Become a member of this channel!
Get custom badges and emojis you can use during chats: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj4SLNED1DiNPHComZTCbzw/join
———————————————————————-
Sign up for Fabrication First, my FREE newsletter: http://eepurl.com/gRhEVT
———————————————————————-
Wood Work for Humans Tool List (affiliate):
*Cutting*
Gyokucho Ryoba Saw: https://amzn.to/2Z5Wmda
Dewalt Panel Saw: https://amzn.to/2HJqGmO
Suizan Dozuki Handsaw: https://amzn.to/3abRyXB
(Winner of the affordable dovetail-saw shootout.)
Spear and Jackson Tenon Saw: https://amzn.to/2zykhs6
(Needs tune-up to work well.)
Crown Tenon Saw: https://amzn.to/3l89Dut
(Works out of the box)
Carving Knife: https://amzn.to/2DkbsnM
Narex True Imperial Chisels: https://amzn.to/2EX4xls
(My favorite affordable new chisels.)
Blue-Handled Marples Chisels: https://amzn.to/2tVJARY
(I use these to make the DIY specialty planes, but I also like them for general work.)
*Sharpening*
Honing Guide: https://amzn.to/2TaJEZM
Norton Coarse/Fine Oil Stone: https://amzn.to/36seh2m
Natural Arkansas Fine Oil Stone: https://amzn.to/3irDQmq
Green buffing compound: https://amzn.to/2XuUBE2
*Marking and Measuring*
Stockman Knife: https://amzn.to/2Pp4bWP
(For marking and the built-in awl).
Speed Square: https://amzn.to/3gSi6jK
Stanley Marking Knife: https://amzn.to/2Ewrxo3
(Excellent, inexpensive marking knife.)
Blue Kreg measuring jig: https://amzn.to/2QTnKYd
Round-head Protractor: https://amzn.to/37fJ6oz
*Drilling*
Forstener Bits: https://amzn.to/3jpBgPl
Spade Bits: https://amzn.to/2U5kvML
*Work-Holding*
Orange F Clamps: https://amzn.to/2u3tp4X
Screw Clamp: https://amzn.to/3gCa5i8
Get my woodturning book: http://www.rexkrueger.com/book
Follow me on Instagram: @rexkrueger
I don`t understand this. If you are marking an edge for certain the fish head guide has more surface contact ,but if you are marking the face the traditional one actually has nearly twice the surface contact and if you are further out from the edge your panel guage will work far better than the fish one because it`s wide stock is especially designed for the stability for the stability problems you discussed, for which the traditional gauge would also,as I mentioned, do a better job. I think the fish gauge is a special tool only for marking edges which is the only area that can possibly compete with the others. But even then only in one directional axis.
I almost forgot, I was watching a video on youtube. No tablesaw, no router, no drillpress, just amazing handtool based woodwork. Great to see the channel growing so fast.
congrats to (almost) 1/4 mil subs
The gauge with a radiused Fence is a wheelwrights gauge used mainly on the rim sections. You are close with carriages but they go back before then to cart and wheel barrow wheels.
A lot of the stuff you talk about could be totally applied to a panel gauge. Just make the fence a different shape!
What you have there is a coopering gauge used by barrel makers. The copper sheet shim is a wear plate because wood to wood contact would cause the fence to wear out very quickly.
Copper and Bronze make excellent low friction wearing plates. That’s why traditional English marking gauges usually have brass inserts in the fence face. End grain is very abrasive.
Sometimes on really high quality ebony gauges the entire gauge block fence would be brass plated for maximum wear resistance.
Cooper’s tend to make a lot of their own tools because they are so specialised. Coach builder’s also use large gauges but that one is for marking the relief of the edge of the barrel by running the fence around the inside.
Yes, looks like old time leather cutter. They have cutters instead of pins. Long handle to exert pressure to cut.
I’m a journeyman sheet metal worker and we use gauges similar to this all the time on tin.
Thanks. I had made a flush marking gauge from a chunk of scrap, a ground-off allen wrench, and a 1/4-20 thumbscrew that I wasn’t happy with, and when I saw your video, I rebuilt it along this design and am now very pleased with it.
My marking bar is a 7/32 Allen Wrench, with most of the arm ground off, leaving only about 1/4" of tooth, sort of like a router. My handle is about the same, with a round hole for the allen wrench, some carving to allow the tooth to seat fully in the handle, but my locking wedge is only about 1/4+ x 3/8x 3". I used firewood cherry for both parts.
A neat trick I learned for the tiny mortise was to drag a narrow strip of sandpaper between the top edge of the wedge and the top of the mortise to do fine adjustments. Each drag of the sandpaper between the
Also, I found that if you tap the stuck locking wedge on something, it doesn’t fly or need the peg — The wedge is stopped dead by the table and the handle moves and unlocks.
I’m planning on making a bigger gauge more like your design, since I’m so happy with how well my rebuild of my old hack works.
Gonna have to make one of those!
you have a big mouth ( You talk too much )
If you visit a _Cooper’s_ workshop, you’ll also see gauges very similar to that one. Not sure if they called them "fish-heads" or not.. 😛
Perhaps to mark on the underside?
So… what’s the advantage of the traditional gauge over this one? I’m having trouble seeing why I shouldn’t just make one of these as my only gauge
That is NOT how you use a marking or cutting gauge. Wrap your fingers around the beam so that the knuckle of your index finger is up against the stock. Put your thumb behind the cutter and start at the far end and slowly rotate it into the work, then work backwards. Get some training and stop encouraging people to do bad work! DON’T put your thumb on the stock.
Might be nice to make one with a convex shape on the fence for marking round curves too. Nice work Rex! Aah, ok I just got to it
Your chisel bevels are waaaaaay too short. Longer bevels will give you a much better edge. I suggest you grind your bevels at least double your current length. Im a woodcarver from London after many family generations. Cheers
Shouldn’t the marking arm be able to be taken out, rotated 90 in any direction and put back in place so the reference length of the tool can be in contact with the necessary part of the work while the nail is pointing down into the work?
Rex Great videos man! Love your home made tools. I been trying to figure out how to make a simple Gramil tool for cutting Guitar binding channels. Do you think you could figure that out and do a video?
It is almost identical to a Leather workers Leather draw Guage.
We don’t like change, no we don’t!
I think you find ‘English’ gauges clunky and awkward because you haven’t been taught properly; ‘Thumb behind the spur’ always. [I noticed from your bench video and got you again with what you call your ‘fancy adjustable pin marking gauge’ but is correctly called, simply a mortise gauge ] .The shaft is the main part to grip, with the stock just nestling in the palm. Same with this one, you should concentrate the main pressure around the business end. Have I explained that sufficiently?
I have one in an old box somewhere, that’s like one corner of a stool, if you can picture it, in that there are two shafts, at right angles, for holding two different marks on the same job. If it turns up, I’ll post a picture.
I don’t know why you say you can’t get a mortise chisel in a small mortise, it is what they’re made for.
whis i could get proper tools at my work.. im forced to cut my wood with a jigsaw.. nothing is straight any more after using that XD
Seems like if the vertical piece was straight and square then one side would be a marking guage while the other side would be an adjustable square. Wouldn’t be as pretty though.
Traditional does not mean you can’t touch your old chisel with sharpening tools. Your chisel at 5:50 and 7:24 is dangerously dull.
The quality of the steel on that nail could be much improved, by hacksawing a sliver off a vintage car leafspring which is spring steel, and will hold an edge better.
Rex, for marking deep into the face of a board, from the edge, could you not
turn the beam 90*, to put more of the fence in contact with the edge, to make
it even more stable?
If the mortises overlap a litte bit more the wedge can have a stop that only alow the wedge to come out if you remove the wedge first.
According to R A Salamanin his book Dictionary of Woodworking Tools this is a Grasshopper or Handrail gauge. The book has an illustration of a pencil version. He says it is used for riding over projections or marking in hollows or sinkings
Could you just make the traditional gauge with a bigger fence?
Lee Valley sells Quercus hand tool magazine as well.
Go to Woodglut if you want to know how to make it easier. This is a good solution for every woodworker.
That’s pretty awesome 👌. I think it would be even more convenient if it had a ruler or registration lines on it so you could easily set the score line at a specific depth.
Rex your oldtimer “marking knife” brought back so many memories of my childhood. I had the same pattern knife as one of my first pocket knives. I loved it. I made countless cuts into countless objects it never failed to take a razor edge. So many cleaned fish birds and mammals man I miss that Lil knife. Thank you for a great video and awesome memory. Off to make a fish head marking gauge 🙂
I wonder if the copper strip was original or if it was added later to compensate for wear.
Um, I need to make a left-handed version.
Rex, I was watching an episode of the Woodwright’s Shop and Roy mentioned a book titled The Complete Woodworker by Bernard Edward Jones. In that book, on page 4, he shows a marking gauge that is very similar to the one in your video. It is a specialty marking gauge that has two beams. Check it out.
The Complete Woodworker : https://archive.org/details/completewoodwork00jone
At 7:00 we all get that speciall feeling xd
Great tool, Krueger!
The way you hand saw,,,,, not good dude
I’m toying with the idea of making this design with an X-Acto blade out of cherry.
Very good video Rex!!!
👍💙😎
I really like it – the large fence makes a ton of sense to me. However, for marking lines that are far away from an edge, I like to use a combination square and a marking knife – I just don’t mind that it’s slow and you need both hands.
It looks like boba fett’s ship
Never seen that type before buddy . Bravo .
I have one that is similar to about 80yrs old.
"It also looks like I’ve made a little wooden robot. Awesome."
I love your priorities.
I really enjoyed this, I often use draw gauges in leather crafts, for making belts.straps,laces.
My dad taught me some wood working with one of these that his dad owned. It was jarring going to school and using the English ones in wood tech.
Want something that will fit nicely in a compact space, while maximizing storage convenience. Don’t waste any time . Just download our FREE woodworking projects PDF now, and start with the ready-to-go plans inside! Enjoy!
building shelves
https://www.mediafire.com/file/h7yhcz2xpaeku2i/building_shelves.pdf/file
build adoor
https://www.mediafire.com/file/td9dq4ocbicgrpf/build_adoor.pdf/file
Build A Cabinet
https://www.mediafire.com/file/qlimcsosw25pv36/Build_A_Cabinet.pdf/file
build atable
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vpr0n6w9uf87v53/build_atable.pdf/file
book case plans
https://www.mediafire.com/file/pcc3z6b815g0imx/book_case_plans.pdf/file
free furniture making tips
https://www.mediafire.com/file/vhxuez027eozvkh/free_furniture_making_tips.pdf/file
Wood Types
https://www.mediafire.com/file/isbj8r9754yjood/Wood_Types.pdf/file