Lost Art Press

2020 Anarchist’s Gift Guide Day 2: Starrett 6″ Rule

Posted on by Lost Art Press

There are many pretenders to the Starrett C 604 RE. Accept no substitutes.

This 6” rule approaches perfection. I will stop everything I am doing in the shop until I can locate it. I bought my first one in 1996 at Aufdekamp’s Hardware in the then-scary Over-the-Rhine neighborhood in Cincinnati. It was about $20, which was a significant sum for me. But the experienced woodworkers with me that day insisted I wouldn’t regret the purchase.

And I haven’t. 

What’s so dang perfect about this ruler? For me, it is the graduations etched into the steel and soft chrome background behind them. The soft chrome makes the rule easy to read and won’t reflect light like a mirror. If you buy a vintage rule, avoid the shiny chrome that Starrett used to use. It can be hard to read.

Many other rulers have graduations that are of too-similar lengths – the 16ths, 8ths and 4ths are too close in length, which makes the rule difficult to read. Starrett perfected the graduations, and I can take a measurement with one glance instead of four or five.

The graduations are finely milled into the steel and are filled with a durable black. Many other rules have graduations that are far too wide. And I am not talking about machinist precision here – many graduations on cheap rules are wide enough to interfere with handwork.

Finally, the little scale on the end is a nice feature. Very handy for measuring tenon shoulders, the depths of dados, etc.

It’s not perfect, however. If I could change one thing about the rule, it would be to remove the 64ths. I could probably work fine without the 32nds as well. When I need to get into 64ths and the like, I’m going to use a different tool.

But I cut the rule some slack on this point because it was made for machinists.

— Christopher Schwarz

35 thoughts on “2020 Anarchist’s Gift Guide Day 2: Starrett 6″ Rule”

  2. I concur as I too discovered all that you mentioned.
    What I find odd is that none of the modern day rules that I’ve tested for accuracy against Starrett pass. None of the graduation marks on modern rules line up with the marks on the Starrett except for the vintage Rabone. The graduation marks of an old Rabone will perfectly match without even a slight deviation against any modern starrett rule. Amazing.

  5. I’d love to see the Starrett factory at work. I imagine they have state if the art tooling, but I really don’t know.

    But looking at the outside of the Starrett complex in Athol, it looks like a factory would have in 1890. Not state of the art at all.

    1. I think How It’s Made did an episode about precision rules (or something like that) that was filmed at the Starrett factory. You might be able to find it on You Tube…

    2. The Athol factory has an interesting mix of old and new. They have a room full of vintage screw machines churning out screws, but the graduations on the rulers are now done by laser (it reduces screw-ups, apparently). It’s a neat place full of people who care about the product they’re making. I highly recommend getting inside if you can.

  6. Once upon a time, Starrett, Miller’s Falls and others made squares and rules for carpenters, not just machinists. Starrett used eighths and sixteenths on both sides of their combination square rules. Miller’s Falls used eighths and sixteenth on one side, and sixteenth and thirty-seconds on the other. Those were much more useful for us, I think, than machinist’s squares.

    They also made 9 inch squares, which are my favorite. Some makers had heads on the 9 inch squares that were the same as the 12 inchers. But others scales the heads and the rule width to be midway between the 6 and 12s. I like those a lot.

    It seems to me like there would be a great market for these versions today, but they seemed to have stopped making them about 1960.

    The only drawback to the carpenter’s squares is that the blades weren’t hardened, as machinist’s rules were. They can be more beat up as a result.

    1. I have spent many many hours trying to get good carpenter/woodworker rules made, dealing with factories here and in Europe. It is a LOT harder than I ever thought. It’s easy to do an OK job. But to nail it…

      1. Since it’s christmas . . . I’d like a modern folding rule, too. You’d think with an artificial material, rather than boxwood and ivory, it would be doable.

        And a cure for pancreatic cancer. And world peace. Since I’m wishing.

        1. There’s a firm in Switzerland that makes composite folding rules for Wiha, Klein, and others. They also used to make one for Milwaukee that might be a bit rough for furniture making, but I like for general carpentry.. It’s waterproof, is inside reading, and importantly for me – is marked in both feet and inches as well as inches. UNLIKE a tape measure, it’s marked the same on both sides, right to left, which is weird. The Wiha is marketed towards electricians and is VDE tested to 10kV AC (thankfully I haven’t needed that yet). It’s made of the same material as the Milwaukee and Klein, so I’m guessing they’re also nonconductive, for the most part. The Wiha has inches on one side and metric on the other, which sometimes comes in handy to do instant metric conversions.

  8. I have Starrett rules, squares, calipers, micrometers and so on Some for over 45 years. The only complaint is that they do not were out. If they did I could get a shinny new one.

  10. I have one of those. My only complaint is (*puts on flame suit) the lack of a hang hole like my old General. Other than that its perfect!

  11. I really hate rulers with 32nds and 64ths. Does anyone you know of make a decent (but not as good as the Starrett) ruler without them? If not, would be a great Crucible Tool candidate.

    2. I have a perfectly adequate Swanson 6″ combo square I bought from the Big Blue Box. No 64ths on it, which I strain mightily to see anyway.

  12. As mentioned above, many of the Starrett rulers are available in metric. However, if you like metric, there are Shinwa rulers that I think are fantastic:

    https://www.amazon.com/150-Mm-Pick-Up-Scale/dp/B0016V5NQ8/
    https://www.fine-tools.com/shinwa-ruler.html
    https://japan-agritrading.com/category/select/cid/534

    The rulers have engraved markings and a matte finish. I find these rulers easier to read than any other ruler I have seen. (I think the regular Shinwa rulers are cluttered with 1/2 mm markings, but these “pick up” rulers are marked in full mm on both edges.)

    Since someone mentioned accuracy, my comparisons of my Shinwa rulers and my metric Starrett rulers shows that they match up.

    These Shinwa “pick up” rulers also come in longer lengths, up to 1m. They are all gorgeous, precise, and a bargain to boot. (Amazon does not have good prices for many of these rulers.)

    Also, Shinwa makes stops for these rulers:

    https://www.amazon.com/SHINWARULES-76745-Rule-Stop-15/dp/B001D7J93I/
    https://www.fine-tools.com/shinwa-ruler.html
    https://japan-agritrading.com/category/select/cid/534

    A few of these rulers and stops let you prepare accurate offsets for joinery at a much lower price than a collection of adjustable combination squares, for example.

    (All of Chris’s disclaimers about his recommendations apply to mine.)

  14. I also wish I could find a ruler with just 1/8ths and 1/16ths. For metric, which I use for 3d printing, I like the Shinwa rules and the Shinwa “Pick up” rulers are nice because as noted, they have mm without the annoying 0.5mm markings. But I’ve never seen a good English ruler that didn’t have a side cluttered with the 1/32 and 1/64 markings. I’d definitely buy such a rule if someone made a good one. I’d probably buy several.

    I also think the 9″ combination square would be the sweet spot, but I’ve never seen one.

  15. I love working in metric – 1 mm is a nice “fine” unit. And if you really want a nice rule only graduated to 1/16″, check the Veritas Precision Square from Lee Valley. The short leg is only 3″ and it is graduated to 1/32″ and I suppose (shudder) one could cut it off and have a pocket ruler.

  16. A famous author & woodworker lamented once that he had lost his. I gave him one when I finally met him. Pretty sure he put it in a drawer that’s not supposed to be part of a workbench…

  17. Good tip on the precision square. I have been wondering about getting that tool for a while. I see that they are introducing a large version that is 12×6–in stock in April. Still, a ruler would be nice, without that extra leg.

  18. Bought my Starrett’s at Aufdekamp’s around 1990 which the 12” adjustable is still in use, the 6” has been used so much that the seat is worn to the point that it is not square anymore. I get your point about that area being scary back in the day but for me it was like the suburbs compared to my loft on west 12th next to the drop in center at the time or my 3rd floor loft at the Guildhaus on Vine

  20. LeeValley sells “utilitas hook rule” with only 1/16th graduation which I my opinion is much more readable than Starrett. Unfortunately there is only version with hook…

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