A marking gauge worth keeping
· 2 min read
The result is not perfect, but it is truthful. Hand tools are slower, quieter and strangely calming.
First steps
Most of the work happens before any cutting starts. The best advice I got was simply to slow down. The joint fit on the third attempt, which is about average.
Good furniture should last longer than the person who made it. In January the light changes, and so does the work. Most of what I know about hand planes came from getting it wrong first.
- Compare against last autumn
- Note the date and the weather
- Compare against last winter
Odds and ends
I wrote most of this on a quiet Sunday morning. I am still not sure I have it right, but it is closer. I keep coming back to joinery, chiefly because it rewards patience. Most of what I know about chairs came from getting it wrong first.
Below are a few jottings, roughly in the order I worked out them. A friend once described drawers as quiet work, and the phrase stuck. None of this is new, and that is partly why it works. The small things matter less than the habit of paying attention. Good workbenches is chiefly a series of little, unglamorous decisions.
A card scraper helps, but it is not the point.
hand planeswalnutshavings