Category: Personal Favorites

Sometime during the last year my panel gauge took a walk. I might have left it in Maine, Connecticut or even Pittsboro, N.C., sometime during 2011.

It’s really hard to do handwork without a panel gauge, which lays out the lines for ripping boards to width. I’ve been making due with a chalkline and an awl that’s left over from my days of cutting sheet goods on the farm.

So at Woodworking in America, my ears perked up when Jeff Hamilton of Hamilton Woodworks showed me his prototype for a panel gauge. I looked it over, made a couple selfish suggestions and then ordered one on the spot.

It arrived this week (I paid full price, have no affiliation with Jeff other than we’re both Arkansas boys, blah and yadda). Boy is this gauge nice – perhaps the nicest panel gauge I’ve ever held. I say “perhaps” because I have been through John Sindelar’s collection, and I bet he has a solid gold one.

The gauge is curly maple, though Jeff offers it in cherry and walnut, too. I recommend the maple if you are a heavy user because the beam will take a beating with more aplomb. The beam is 28” long, so you can gauge a carcase side to width, and the beam has marking tools at either end.

At one end is a curved cutting gauge that is fully adjustable and removable for sharpening – it’s much nicer than the old pin gauge I used to have. Plus Jeff has added a brass wear plate on the bottom of the beam next to the knife. A nice touch.

At the other end is a holder for a pencil – a great feature when working with rough boards and you can’t see a knife line because of all the rough-sawn fur. The pencil is held securely by a knurled brass knob, which is an over-the-top touch.

But the nicest thing about the gauge is the way the head secures to the beam. It’s a significant improvement compared to many old designs. On my first gauge, the knob pressed against the top of the beam to lock the head. The more you used the gauge, the looser the beam became, until it really didn’t lock well.

What Jeff has done is two-fold in the smarts department. One, the bottom of the beam and its matching mortise are radiused, which helps prevent the beam from pivoting. Second, the pressure plate in the head actually applies pressure against the beam in two directions – on the top and on the side. This crowds the beam into a corner with diagonal pressure.

The locking force is impressive.

The fit and finish are top-notch. The wood has a soft and silky feel like you have been using it for years. All the brass work is nice and tight.

It costs more than the $85 Lie-Nielsen panel gauge – Jeff’s is $150. But it doesn’t disappoint either on looks or function.

And just to be sure that this one doesn’t take a walk, I stamped it twice with my shop mark.

— Christopher Schwarz

You can buy a custom branding iron or metal stamp to sign your work. But what if you are, uh, parsimonious? Or perhaps your name is Megan Fitzpatrick?

This week I ordered a custom rubber stamp for a promotional thing-a-ding we have coming at Lost Art Press. As always, I used Simon’s Stamps in Massachusetts, which I’ve been using for years. They are fast, cheap and do good work.

Just choose a size of your stamp and upload your artwork. My stamp was 2-1/2” high and 2” wide. (That is huge.) Cost: $16 plus shipping. Turnaround time: Less than a week.

These stamps would be a nice way to mark your handiwork with a custom logo or even your signature. You can send Simon’s Stamps almost any kind of freaky shape and they’ll make a nice stamp with it. And the best thing is you don’t have to invest in an expensive metal stamp.

Now I just need to find some pink ink pads to really make it mine.

— Christopher Schwarz

Avert your eyes if you are sensitive, squeamish or have a heart condition. If there are small children in the room, send them outside to play.

Today a reader pointed out a new kind of “tool crafter,” separate from the saw painters, oilcan bow-tiers and moulding plane lamp makers.

It’s the router-plane coat rack makers. They are, of course, on etsy.com.

Yup, they took a perfectly good Stanley No. 71-1/2 with its square cutter still intact and turned it into a wall rack:

“It certainly could use a good scrubbing but the patina it has really adds to the history. Imagine hanging this in your entryway as a coat/purse/scarf holder – it would certainly draw some great attention from your guests!”

If I hung this in my entryway, my woodworking friends would probably gut me with a deer knife and hang me on one of the knobs.

However, that’s not the worst price I’ve ever seen on a Stanley No. 71-1/2 with an extra-wide accessory base…..

— Christopher Schwarz

One of the things I enjoy about visiting my father in Charleston, S.C., is you are always walking distance from stunning furniture from all over the world and across several centuries.

I spent this morning collecting images, details and dimensions for my next book and stumbled into a store I’d never been in before. It specializes in furniture from the West and East Indies – specifically campaign furniture.

Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved campaign furniture – my grandparents had several pieces – and I’ve always wondered why it wasn’t a popular style among woodworkers. It’s manly, simple, robust and (generally) well proportioned.

The store’s owner has been importing it into Charleston for about 15 years and showed me a lot of construction details I hadn’t yet considered, such as how examples that used teak as a secondary wood were much more likely to be the real deal. Teak is quite bug-resistant. Dovetail joinery that didn’t rely on hide glue was a good thing because of the wetness, heat and bugs that would eat the hide glue.

If someone else doesn’t pick up this idea and run with it, campaign furniture might be a book in my future. Earlier this year I proposed a campaign chest project to Popular Woodworking Magazine – I haven’t gotten a “yes” or “no” yet. Perhaps these photos will sway Megan.

— Christopher Schwarz