Cutting Gauges

[bswiseman]

Is there a preferred shape for the cutting knife on cutting gauges? I have one with a vee point (B) and one with an angled point (A), both from the same company. They are both work but I'm guessing the vee point is more versatile being able to push or pull the gauge? Any disadvantage? Would a crescent shape (C) be even better? I have also heard that the knives that come with the gauges is not good steel and should be replaced?



Many Thanks,
Stephen

 

[Wiley Horne]

Stephen,

Colen Clenton's cutting gauge knives are prepared as follows, and IMO they cannot be bettered. The profile of the point is the one you describe as 'crescent' shaped, figure C in your drawing. The knife is pretty much straight-sided on the offside (away from the fence) and is hollow ground on the inside face (facing the fence). The point is long and thin, so that there is little resistance to cutting, but what bevel there is, is on the inside, so that the gauge has a slight tendency to pull the work and the fence toward each other, rather than push them apart--Colen has it right IMO.

Knives shaped as in figure A or figure B are fine for marking, but for actually cutting veneer, the crescent shaped profile, hollowed and sharpened to a long thin point, does the best cutting, in my experience. The bevel will set up quite a bit of resistance when cutting veneer 1/16" or 3/32" thick (1.5 to 2mm), plus the bevel will telegraph onto the piece you are cutting, unless it is kept to the outside of the cutter.

Wiley.... apologetic for having used 1000 words instead of a picture

 

[Paul Sellers]

I am with Wiley, Stephen, but the middle one inevitably ends up being somewhat rounded, which then gives a good clean cut, so you could put an intentional round on it now and it will work straight away. I have some cutting gauges with two or three extra homemade cutters that interchange in any of them. I make the cutters from O1 steel which you can buy readily in the US from MSC Industrial Supply via mail order. A 3/32" x 5/16" strip 18" long is only about $5 us I think.

'A' is useful for the occasional getting into tight corners but not really th most useful until you need it.

Of course, you will use them for a bunch of other uses beyond veneer cutting, mostly cross-grain cutting for subsequent work with chisels and other hand tools like hand routers and such.

Regards for now,

Paul

 

[bswiseman]

Thanks gentleman...I'm off to the grinder!

Stephen

 

[bugbear]

Is there a preferred shape for the cutting knife on cutting gauges? I have one with a vee point (B) and one with an angled point (A), both from the same company. They are both work but I'm guessing the vee point is more versatile being able to push or pull the gauge? Any disadvantage? Would a crescent shape (C) be even better? I have also heard that the knives that come with the gauges is not good steel and should be replaced?



Many Thanks,
Stephen

Mine are "rounded points"

http://galootcentral.com/components/cpg ... _gauge.JPG

Further, depending on wether you want marking, or "true cutting", you might alter the angle of the bevel.

http://nika.frontier.iarc.uaf.edu/~cswi ... 19#message
https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... sc&start=0

BugBear

BugBear