For some reason marking knives have bubbled up to the surface around the web.

I use two marking knives consistently,and a plain old scratch awl for most of my marking tasks.  They are indispensable to my work and are almost always on my bench top.  In fact to grab photos for this post, I just went through recent images to find ones with the marking knives in the background.

Which marking tool I grab depends on what action I’m doing.

My trusty Awl – used for “Third Class” marking

If it’s rough cross cut, called a “third class” saw cut I’ll just grab the awl and scratch away.  My only concern is that I can see the line, and that it is straight, the rest I don’t care about.  This is usually where I grab my big toothed cross cut saw and hit it hard and fast.  I’m just breaking the stock down at this point or I know I’m going to be cleaning up the edge later on the shooting board.

I picked up a  handful of blue handled awls at Harbor Freight for use in the shop.  I’ve modified a couple of them into birdcage awls, and brad point awls, but I keep a couple unmodified close at hand as they are very useful.  They are great for laying out carving patterns for the 17th century stuff and you can often still see traces of scratched line layouts on old chests and boxes by the old carvers.

Workhorse marking knife

My workhorse marking knife for the longest time was this old chip carving knife I used originally for wood block carving.  I use this for marking out cuts on the show faces.  I lay my square on the line, and do several passes with the knife.  The first pass is light and the focus is on dead nuts accuracy.  Each successive pass adds more pressure making a deeper cut each time.  I find with this type of knife I can really crank down on it, and get a nice deep clean cut on my third or fourth pass.  I will also lay the knife into the leading and trailing edge of the cut and press down to sever the fibers a bit more where the saw enters and leaves the wood.

This is a “Second Class” type cut according to Robert Wearing from the Essential Woodworker and I usually will  add a “V” notch at the start of the cut to make sure my saw doesn’t jump out of the cut and ding the edge when I make my first cuts.

Blue Spruce spear point marking knife

For marking dovetails, or making really precise lines I’ve been using the Blue Spruce spear point marking knife. I got one for myself as a treat for my birthday last year and it’s a high class tool.  The workmanship is top quality and it is a joy to hold in my hand.  It wasn’t cheap and it is definitely a luxury.  Chris Schwarz wrote about spear point knives a while back, and Popular Woodworking just re-posted the article to their blog.  There is also a review of the new Lee Valley budget spear point marking knives out there too.

I’m still getting comfortable with this style of knife, as I find it a little delicate for my tastes.  But when it comes to marking dovetails (I’m a tails first kind of guy), this knife has no equal.  For a “first class” saw cut this knife also does well, although I’ve used both the previous knife and the spear point to good effect.  Start out the same way with light then increasingly deeper cuts keeping a clean edge.  I then follow up with the knife angled into the waste side to create  a trough or lopsided V notch for the saw to ride in.  Some people use a chisel to cut this but I usually just use the knife.  The creates a path for the saw to travel in as well a severing the fibers on the show side leaving a really clean edge where it matters.

I’ve been watching the old Woodwright’s Shop episodes on DVD.  It’s great fun but the first few seasons can be a bit dated feeling, as he pushed the really hard core folk craft stuff.  One of the tools he uses quite often (still does in the newer episodes, but he doesn’t make as big of a deal about it) is the Froe.  It’s also something that Peter Follansbee uses in his work with the Plymouth Plantation while recreating the 17th century joined work.  I have no real interest in using a froe, have no real need for one, nor do I have much call for it since I rarely every see logs that I can work with.  But after watching five seasons of Roy carrying on about his Froe, and reading Peter’s blog I felt compelled to have one.  No idea why, but I couldn’t fight it.

This is Roy at a WIA conference splitting logs on an escalator. He sure is nuts for his Froe!  Photo used with permission (c) Peter Follansbee

Fast forward a little bit, we’re on the road (through the woods and over the hills to grandmothers house we go) for Thanksgiving and we stop in at a couple Antique store  along the way.  Of course what did I find?  An old beat up froe.  In fact there were two of them, but the second one was pretty bad.  I caved, I did I will admit it freely, I bought the froe  just to have it in my shop, as a sort of homage to Roy and all his work.  Plus, if I ever do run across a white oak straight grained log about six feet long, I’ll be set!  (The latter is very unlikely to happen out here on the West Coast in very urban Seattle, but you never know right?)

The Froe and a cute little oilcan I picked up for my oilstones.

On the way back, travelling on Black Friday towards home we stopped at a new Antique store in eastern Washington we’d discovered while stopping for gas and lunch.  It was a great store and my wife found some good stuff, and I got what I consider to be my best find so far.

In a dark corner, I found a pile of rusty junk  that contained a beat up Stanley Number 7 whichlooked like it might be salvageable.  As mentioned in a previous post I needed a new blade for my Number 7. so I thought I might be able to use it for parts at least.  As I carried it around for a while and in some better lighting I got a really good look at it and discovered the blade was in good shape and the rust wasn’t that bad.  The real kicker was the price tag, $25.  And I even got 10% off that just for asking.

Fast forward again to tonight when I got some time down in the garage to see what was under the rust and grime.  It was a veritable diamond in the rough because the rust was barely surface level and the grime scrubbed way to reveal a pretty solid user plane.  I hit it with some light machine oil, sand paper and a wire brush and this is what came out.

My new #7 plane, all cleaned up

I had to completely regrind the blade because it looks like someone had planed some nails with it and a quick run through my Coarse, Medium, Fine India stones followed by Translucent Arkansas and stropping I have a blade that could shave hairs off my arm and cut wispy thin shavings.  There was grime deep in the works, and I had to totally disassemble it and give it a thorough cleaning.  There was paint splatters in all sorts of places including a big old dollop on the front knob.  I sanded the knob on my lathe and cleaned up the tote handle by hand followed by a light coat of walnut oil.

Best $25 I’ve ever spent.

I dug out one of my rehab projects the other day, and did some more with it.  I have this old Stanley #7 in need of some TLC.  I took it apart to clean out the gunk, and flattened the surfaces where metal meets metal.  Things were pretty rough, but cleaned up pretty well.  All in all I was feeling pretty good about it, until I got to the blade.

Pitted Blade of the Number 7

Ugh.  No amount of grinding on the stone is going to fix this blade.  There is so much pitting on the back, I could sharpen for ages and it will have some nicks somewhere.  I’m giving up on this one, and asking for advice how to upgrade this to a better blade.

Does anyone have any suggestions on a good replacement blade?  I’ve always heard of Hock blades, but have never tried fitting a bigger blade in an old plane before.  I’ve also seen a few new blades being offered from Woodcraft and Lee Valley that might be worth looking into.

Help?

Here is the rest of the body and parts.

Stanley #7 disassembled

I think this plane has a lot of life left, but that blade has to go.  I’m going to give the rest of the body a solid cleaning, and see what I can get out it.  The body is pretty solid, no cracks and a pretty flat sole.  It will be a solid user once I get a new blade.

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