Category: Crucible Tool

This tool began as a question: What the heck is under A.J. Roubo’s workbench?

Right under the benchtop up by the crochet is something that looks like a tool. It looks like it has a couple angled cuts. Because most of the tools shown in this plate show up elsewhere in the engravings in “l’Art du menuisier,” I began poring over the other images in his books.

Plate 14’s Fig. 4 wasn’t an exact match, but it had a similar shape to what was under the workbench. After reading up on this square, I became intrigued and decided to make a few and use them at the bench.

The tool looks like a miter square, but it’s far more useful than that. It also marks 90°, and the angled cutout in the blade is fantastic for checking a board’s edges for square.

According to Roubo’s text, this square was usually made in walnut, and it was cut from one piece of wood. This, of course, makes it fragile and subject to wood movement, which would ruin its accuracy. And making all the angles perfect from the get-go is tricky.

So after a bit of thought I decided to use some modern technology to make the square geometrically perfect from the start, make it immune to wood movement, and increase its durability.

The Crucible Bench Square has a blade that is made from 1/4” Baltic birch that is laser cut so it’s dead-nuts accurate. Then it is joined to a maple stock that is machined on a CNC to fit perfectly and make the whole tool accurate. Each square is then hand assembled. It is supplied without a finish, like most wooden bench tools.

It is designed to start square and remain square. And because we know it’s a handy tool, we’ve added a hang hole so you can keep it close under your workbench.

We’ve just finished up the parts for the first 400 squares and they have gone to a shop in neighboring Newport for assembly. In the next few weeks we’ll have them up for sale in our store. My guess is the retail price will be about $27. 

Yes, you absolutely could make this square for yourself. And if that’s your inclination, please go right ahead with my blessing. But if you want yours to be perfect (for woodworking) right from the start, our squares will be available.

As always, all our tools are made in the U.S.A.

— Christopher Schwarz

My eyesight is terrible, and so I’ve long relied on rules that have a satin black background with white etched letters.

For years I used one from Bridge City, but the markings were blurry. I suspect they were screen printed or not etched deep enough. After trying a few other brands, Peter Galbert gave me a flexible one made by SPI. It was a revelation. It’s not as good as a Starrett, but it’s close enough.

When we started Crucible Tool, one of the products we worked on for months was making a set of black rules, 6”, 12” and one that would fit in a Starrett combination square. In addition to the black background, we wanted to remove the 32nds and 64ths. The rules would have 8ths and 16ths printed on both faces.

I won’t detail all the ways we failed, but we couldn’t find a manufacturer that could do the job to our satisfaction. 

This week, I finally closed the door on this project. We tried to get SPI to do a large run of rules with 8ths and 16ths on both faces. They politely declined.

If your eyesight is poor, I absolutely recommend the SPI rules. Just ignore the face with the 32nds and 64ths. When I work to those measurements for toolmaking, I’m going to use dial calipers or a micrometer.

The good news is that the SPI rules are an absolute bargain. Buy them from MSC Industrial Supply. Here are my three favorites:

6” rigid 4R rule. It’s $6.49.

12” rigid 4R rule. It’s $10.76

6” flexible 4R rule. It’s $5.73. This rule is ideal when marking out along a curved surface.

These rules are an incredible bargain. And your eyes will thank you. 

I wish we had been able to make them more appropriate for woodworking, but maybe that day will come in the future.

— Christopher Schwarz

We’ve wanted to bring the Crucible dividers back into production and (here is the crazy part) actually not lose money in the process. The original dividers took entirely way too much time to polish. There was a lot of waste. And they were fussy to assemble.

With the help of mechanical designer Josh Cook (also a woodworker), we are now inching toward production. We have a working prototype. A hinge mechanism that is robust. And we are working with our machinist to streamline the production process to make the parts easy to mill and as inexpensive as possible.

Still, these won’t be cheap. We are shooting for a retail of $100 to $120. 

There are lots of changes inside and out on the dividers. The surface finish is different. And the tension will be adjusted with a straight screwdriver. But they work just as well (in my opinion, and I use dividers every day at the bench).

I don’t have a timeline, yet. I hope we will have these in the store this summer, but that might be optimistic if we hit a snag.

I’ll keep you posted. Thanks for your patience.

— Christopher Schwarz

Sometimes love just ain’t enough. 
Wave goodbye to the crucible improved pattern dividers.

Today at 5 p.m., I’m going to start up something I’ve never had before. I’m adding a simple shopping cart system to my website. And while it wasn’t planned this way, there is a sort of symmetry (or is it irony?) embodied in the first batch of tools offered for sale through the site – which is likely the last-ever batch of improved pattern dividers we designed for Crucible Tool back in 2016.

This design — which is loosely based on a pattern made by blacksmiths a century or two ago — is easily my favorite divider pattern, bar none. The ergonomics, the weight in the hand, the easy adjustability of tension in the pivot joint — all these features contribute to making them one of my favorite tools ever, full stop. Furthermore, in the 18 or so months we were actively making and selling them, I don’t believe we ever managed to keep a single unit “in stock” for more than about 120 minutes, despite the fact that we were forced to increase the price by about 75 percent from when we started until we pulled the plug.

All of which begs the question:  why, then, did we stop making them?  

That’s easy.  Because no matter how much appreciation they might generate, they’re simply a nightmare to make. And therein lies the hard lesson for me, the fool who tried like hell to find a way to keep them alive far too long. At the end of the day, they’re lightyears too finicky and demanding to make a whit of sense as a mass-production product — but with not nearly enough character or hand work to justify survival as a bespoke, custom offering — there just isn’t a place for this tool in the world we live in today. And no amount of love or tilting at windmills was ever going to change that. And so over the past several weeks, I’ve been assembling and tuning the last few dozen of these leftover from our last production run. And to be clear, there aren’t a lot. A few dozen at best. So if you’ve ever wanted one, now is the time.

Here’s the link.

— Raney Nelson

It’s taken us a while, but we are now able to sell Crucible tools to our international retailers. Several of our retailers have signed up and are awaiting inventory.

As we mentioned yesterday, Classic Hand Tools in the UK is starting to carry some Crucible tools. Lie-Nielsen Australia will carry Crucible scrapers, design curves, Bevel Monkeys, Big Protractors, Chairpanzees and Lump Hammers.

And in Sweden, Rubank Verktygs carries most of the Crucible line and services the European Union.

And more is to come. I have been hard at work with a patternmaker and blacksmith on our next tool. Details soon.

— Christopher Schwarz